


The Night Mother's Heirs

by PantheraQueen



Series: The Legends of Panthera [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Animal Instincts, Animal Traits, Bat-Griff, Caffeine Addiction, Dark Magic, Dating before crushing, Demigods, Demisexuality, F/F, F/M, Horse Racing, Hybrid of a Griffin with a bat, Icy Mountains Jokes mostly, Implied/Referenced Incest, Internalized Homophobia, Internalized Misogyny, Interspecies Relationship(s), Kitsune, M/M, Magic, Magic Triggered Transformations, Matriarchal, Mentions of Myth & Folklore, Mermaids, Multi, No Sex, No Smut, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Nonbinary Character, Old Gods, Politics, Rogues get more focus, Royalty, Sanctuary, Self Confidence Issues, Shapeshifting Immortals, Sirens, Some internalized nonbinary phobia, Team Bonding, Traveling the world, Wind Magic, culture clash, dragon - Freeform, gratuitous world building, nobles - Freeform, queer platonic relationship, wild magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:21:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 118,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23746762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PantheraQueen/pseuds/PantheraQueen
Summary: The Champions' adventures continue as they battle against the Night Bringer to bring back the sun while they are drawn deeper into the old scars of the past and learn not everything is like it is told. And an unexpected surprise shakes Nix and Jinx just as the battle begins.
Relationships: Fay&Aleksandr, Fay&Keira, Jinx&Nix, Kalima/Kieran, Lyra/Caterina, Maria/Sarafina, Sofia/Aleksandr
Series: The Legends of Panthera [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1549177
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Don't expect this story to update as fast as Sekhmet did. This one is incomplete as of the moment and my computer is having problems, so it will update as I can write it.

"Tiamat the Destroyer may have birthed nations, but our heavenly mother birthed the world itself." I looked up at the rustling of feathers and the sharp snaps of wings. Above me, two mountain griffins circled. One was a dark gold that stood out heavily against the dark sky while the other was cloaked in the shadows. As I watched, they circled lower and lower before finally setting down in front of me. Damian looked at me quizzical while the blond seemed to be smiling though it was hard to tell. She could be grimacing. 

"What are you reading?" 

I snapped the book closed then deposited into the void quickly. I stood up. "What? No hello for your little cousin."

Damian blinked, then rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You said it, not me." I smiled then walked forward. He pushed me forward with his wing. I started to purr when I collided with his chest. He lifted up one of his hindlegs and I moved a little to the side to allow it.

I hugged him tightly for a few minutes before I pulled away. "Okay, I'm starting to suffocate in here. Let me go." His wing tightened around me for a second before it moved back to his side followed shortly by his leg.

The blond stepped forward. "I am Rune Stone." She had a heavy accent that I couldn't place though it was very exotic sounding. I kind of wanted her to talk to me. Though I was quick to push that feeling away. It was a stupid desire and a little bit creepy. Must be when my heat should have been. I always start getting weird around then.

"I am Lady Apprentice Adelita of the Volcanic Plains of Panthera, champion of the Empress Freya, daughter of High Priestess Kisa." I hoped it sounded as impressive as I had imagined it when I had practiced it in my room. "There are a lot more titles, but it gets a bit redundant after a while, so you will have to ask Damian for them later if you are truly interested in them."

Rune Stone nodded. "Yep, that's why I don't use mine ever." She cocked her head to the side for a second. "Well, my mother doesn't use hers either, so that might have something to do with it." She laughed deeply and her tail lashed furiously from side to side.

My ear flicked then I turned my head towards Damian as he coughed slightly. It sounded a little uncomfortable. "Well, why don't we head inside?"

"Didn't you say there were more," Rune Stone said with a rough shake of her head. "Because I don't see more and I know there is no invisibility magic this time. I learned my lesson from that."

Damian looked towards me and smiled awkwardly with a shrug. "It was mostly Bindi's fault. She lost control of her magic. Though in her defense, the amulet was made of anti-magic, so it could have been alot worse then switching powers."

"Though the look on Maria's face was hilarious." Rune Stone's tail stopped lashing and she laughed deeply with her front right hind claw in front of her muzzle. "She choose the wrong day to get the pixie flu though, she is going to be so annoyed when she realizes she missed the opening of the mysterious door." She said the last words in an over dramatic doom voice. Then she looked at me. "Damian said you were interested in Commander Key-tan's reign, yes?"

I shrugged. "I don't know." I turned to Damian. "Is that what you said?"

He nodded. "More or less." His tail started to lash from side to side as he quieted. "So where is everybody?"

"Well, Kalima, Fay, Caterina, and Kieran were invited to breakfast with Lady Dawn's Wing and East of the Sun and Moon. Lyra is still asleep. I lost Aleksandr in the square after he squealed about crystal things. Nix decided to go on a date with Des. Jinx went shopping with Tia, Seraphine, Ayala, Doe, and Sofia." I sighed deeply. "Though if I had known you were going to be late, I would have gone with them. I saw a really awesome looking bookstore on the way in."

"Madame Petulia's fantastic hoaxes and darling bookstore," Rune Stone said. She shifted from paw to paw. The earth rumbled slightly. "I wanted to visit it too, but Steadfast said we couldn't, because he slept with one of his, I mean, her daughter." She stopped bouncing and looked at me embarrassed. "I still have trouble remembering your pronoun words."

"Not as much as when we first meet though."

Rune stone nodded sharply then looked behind me. "Oh, that reminds me. We need to go do our final inspection before we open the door." She started to walk away then stopped when Damian didn't follow. "Come now, you have allowed us to push it off much too long."

I glanced at Damian. "Is that slang for are you guys going to go make out down there? Because that sounds nasty. I mean, there has to be at least six types of mold growing there, at least."

Damian rolled his eyes. "Mold needs water to grow, Adelita, this is a desert."

"Don't call me Adelita, Dare." I growled at him.

"Don't tell me what to do, little cousin." I growled again then leaped forward, grasping a hold of his neck feathers. He jerked back pushing me hard against him. It forced the air from my lungs in one movement. It left me gasping. I let go. My back hit the sand. A cloud of dust rose around me. I heard Damian walk the short distance to where I was. He stared down at me with concern. "Are you okay?"

"Just peachy. Thanks for asking," I gasped between each word. My magic stores were lower than I had expected, but it dropped a lot quicker now. It seemed some days that my talisman was gulping down my magic. Though why it was, I didn't know. I still hadn't gotten around to reading the champion books that High Priestess had sent us through Mama, so it could just be a matter of adjusting to the talisman. Though my stores were depleted faster than anyone's. Maybe, I had a magic parasite or something. I jumped slightly as Damian nuzzled against me. "Warn a girl next time."

"Alright, next time, I decide to be nice, I'll give you a week's warning."

"That would be much appreciated." I huffed then nuzzled him back. I loved him even when he annoyed me.

"Yeah, yeah." Damian stepped back slowly then flared out his wings before he gave them a harsh shake that ran down his body. "Enough with the mushy stuff, time to geek out about an old door."

"It is not just an old door. It is a sealed time capsule to post-Saris burial techniques." I turned to look to Rune Stone. She had straightened up to almost her full height and was glaring sharply at Damian. I stepped aside slightly. Her eyes look towards me then back to Damian with a sharp stomp of her right front paw. Then she swiftly turned around and stomped off down the sand dune. I glanced back at Damian who was watching her walk away. I turned back around then shrugged before I followed Rune Stone down the slope.

My paws were sinking into the sand as I walked down it. The warm sand settled around my ankle as if it was trying to suck me down into the depths with it. With my luck, it was trying to. Finally, I reached the bottom of the sand dome without falling, sliding, or getting kidnapped by Sand Women desperately lonely. My tail flicked slowly as I let that thought play out for a minute before I pushed it away swiftly as Damian reached the bottom of the slope again. His tail was lashing and he was squirming around from side to side as he stopped walking.

I turned my attention towards the towering entrance of the cave mouth. Every so often, a blue glow would spread down the tunnel before going back down it. It was a very pretty blue. Soothing. Calming.

I really needed to eat something soon. My stomach made a sound halfway between mewling kit and a roaring bull during mating season. I glanced around nervously, but Damian and Rune Stone were off by the entrance of the cave chatting together. They looked cozy. I wondered if I should try to set them up for a minute, but I set it aside as I remembered the huge stack of paperwork that went into arranging Doe and Ayala's mating. And I wasn't even done with it yet.

I walked forward slowly. My paws sank down into the sand though it was easy enough to step out of it. I kept walking until I was right by Damian. He glanced at me for a second before he ruffled out his neck and wing feathers quickly before they settled back down.

"Come on. Janja already recallerberated the security spell to include you and your group. Though it was a surprisingly complicated process according to her." Rune Stone blinked rapidly at me for a minute before she sneezed out loudly, her wing flaring out as her head was thrown back. She shook her head from side to side before she opened her eyes. "Ugh."

"Allergies?"

She shook her head harshly before she lifted up her head and twisted around her feathers before she sneezed again. "No. Just sand. It gets everywhere."

"And we don't have the luxury of hands to reach places." Damian shifted his wings then twitched his shoulders like he had a biting flies again. Though he had sworn that he didn't know how he got them, he had been spending a lot of time off with Rosemary in the itchy bushes for 'hunting lessons'. My tail flicked.

"Don't be crude," I said with a sharp hiss as I felt something stir inside me. My mind went through a list of medical problems that could be causing the pain I felt, but I ticked off each one off of my mental checklist. Then I moved on to magical properties of security spells that caused similar pains in the stomach. Finally, I ran through all of the magical ailments and backlashes that could cause it before I gave up. Damian sputtered something that I half listened to.

We walked around a bend in the cave and ended up in front of a large metal door. I walked around Rune Stone and looked up at the door that towered over me at twice Damian's height, maybe even twice Eona's height. A shudder went down my spine as I looked over the marking on the door. Two serpent like dragons, one of their claws raised above them as if to grasp the elemental bodies above them, ran beside the raised door handles. A full moon rested above the left dragon while a sun ensignal was above the right. My talisman thumped suddenly, a harsh jolt against my chest. I hissed sharply. The dragons' eyes turned bright red. A grinding noise filled the air and then a circle outlined in red shone against the blackness of both doors. An osberous glowed bright blue then it spread along to the side of the rectangle that contained it. The circles spun, round and round before they stopped. The circle sank into the door with a hiss like a puff of concentrated smoke and the doors swung open. The wind softly blew against me as the left door passed. The doors stopped before they hit the wall.

"Well, that was something." Damian was staring at the right door while Rune Stone was looking at the left door with an intense look of shock.

"We should have brought you with us. Would have saved us years of research." I turned to look at Rune Stone.

"We have only been here six months."

Rune Stone bumped against Damian with a sharp chirp. Damian stumbled back towards the wall. "Yeah, but Mother was looking for ways to open this door since before-" She snapped her beak closed and glared at Damian before she walked past me. 

I followed her as she walked into the room though outside of snapping range. 

A red burst of light appeared in front of her as she approached the now open. There was a loud crash and she was thrown back, small bunches of red lightning came off of the place where she had walked into it. I turned back to her. Damian was standing over her, his wings spread. The edges of his wings hitting the sides of the tunnel. I turned back towards the door then back towards Rune Stone.

I shrugged then turned back towards the opening. I reached my hand out. The field buzzed as I neared it before it flicked then disappeared. I reached my hand inside. A cool breeze ruffled against my fur. I inched closer. Still nothing. Finally, I was inside of the room.

My ears turned towards where I had left Damian and Rune Stone, but I could hear nothing. I turned around to see the door, while still open was now a silverish white like the scales of a fish. I sniffed. Though it didn't smell fish. Not at all. I walked back through it. Damian and Rune Stone were still where I left them, but Damian had lowered his wings and Rune Stone had her head up though she wasn't looking at me.

I walked back through the portal quickly, so I wouldn't ruin their couple's moment. I turned around and finally, looked around the room. There were three rings of stairs starting from where I was and going down. They were grey and coated in a thick layer of dust, but, I glanced around sharply, thankfully, no spider webs. A shudder went down my spine at that thought. I turned back to the center of the room, where a ring of chairs in front of a grand table. At least a Damian wide and about a dragon's tail thick made of the same stone of the room and walls. The chairs were also made of the same material.

I walked forward. Dust settled onto my pads in a clingy, grungy layer that reminded me of the time Eona got hiccups and burnt most of the flooring out of the house. Though she managed to focus most of it on the floor and ceiling, which I was looking for an excuse to replace anyway.

The chair across the table suddenly started to glow black from what looked like a carving. As I watched, the glow spread along the carving quickly before it was all a blaze. I moved towards it as my wrist marking started to glow in the same way the carving had and started to itch. I quickly scratched at it, but it refused to go away. Stupid magic. My tail lashed sharply as I quickly moved forward. My mark grew brighter and brighter as I approached.

A strange hum started and I stopped only a few paw steps away from where it sat, looking as ominous as a chair could actually look without being ridiculous. My ear swiveled around and around as I tried to find the source of it, but I couldn't find it. I sighed and moved closer to the chair. The hum shifted slowly into a melody, I almost half remembered. 

A soft feeling radiated from my chest and as I stopped moving. Notes appeared almost instantly in my head and almost like I was being possessed, I started to sing. I closed my eyes tightly as the song rushed over me. 

The melody changed, the notes shifting and rearranging, slowing down, until I could feel it around me strongly and warm. Like Mama's hugs, Aunt Vera singing with me during Mother's night, and snuggling up to Damian as he read me a book. Or Jinx nuzzling into me after I had a nightmare, the happiness and pride in Fay's eyes when she managed to beat me at sparring, Lala chattering about her designs while I helped Doe with her latest poem. Nixie humming as he worked on a new architecture design while I ate muffins next to him. Kalima talking excitedly about the latest book that she had read. Keira and I snarking about other people from the rafters as they entered the party while we ate sneaked snacks from the buffet table. Each memory hit me with the force of a thousand horse stampede.

My hand hit against the cold stone of the chair. I shuddered as the dust settled into my fur. I was going to have to scrub tonight to get all this off.

The melody changed one last time, a flash of amber eyes and a shrill cry, before it burrowed down into my chest. I opened my eyes and lifted my hand to my heart. I counted the beats for several minutes before I heard the song again. Distant, but there. I lowered my hand. A thick streak of dust was on my uniform. I groaned. "Stupid messy dust monsters." I growled sharply. It carried across the room like thunder. Booming and shaking the walls. I blinked before I growled again. This time it was louder. A piece of ceiling fell on the table. I looked at it before I blinked twice then looked around the room.

Around the room, doors appeared along the walls at the cardinal directions. Draconic symbols appeared above them in red. Old dragonic too. Before Freya era old. The air grew cold suddenly. I grasped my talisman tightly. It was warm and thumped like a second heart. A weird taste appeared on my tongue. A spicy taste like Mother's Night cakes or Mama's cooking. The cold feeling vanished. I decided to not tempt fate today, after a very heated debate with myself, and left the room through the door I can in through. But I made a mental note to bring everyone back here.

I stepped out to see Rune Stone staring at me with Damian pressed tightly into her side. No one said anything so I glanced back at the door and put on a winning smile. "Not a burial site. Isn't that cool." Even I could hear the strain in my voice. I don't like people staring at me. Especially after all the weird magic things happen. It was really hard to regain composure like this.

"You went in there?" I glanced at Rune Stone. "Inside there." I nodded.

"Without getting zapped." I nodded again.

"Yes. I did. I found something really cool, too." I pointed towards the door.

Rune Stone stepped forward. "Really? What?" Her tail swished from side to side. A bright contrast to the dark stone around us.

"A room." I moved towards Damian. I projected the image of the room out of my hand and into his mind. I pulled my hand away, gasping slightly as I did so. My magic dropped down until I could only feel a small trickle of it.

Damian blinked then nuzzled against my cheek sharply. I rubbed back and a purr rumbled out of my throat. "That was something. Jinx taught you that?" I nodded. "Okay." He looked away then flicked his tail sharply. "Moving on. Was there anything in there that could cause the door."

I shook my head. "No, at least not that I saw. There were other rooms, but I didn't go in there. They might have it."

"Alright. Can you describe the room? In as much minute detail as possible," Rune Stone said. Her wings opened slightly and she stepped forward. Her claws scratched against the floor. My ears flicked back.

I breathed in and started to tell them everything that had happened in the room as I could remember. Several long minutes passed, Rune Stone went from surprised to impressed while Damian moved to me and wrapped his wing around me. He was always was a little on the dumb side, but I loved him none the less. That was the best part of having a sibling. Well, a cousin, but close enough. "And that is about everything."

"Okay, so it is an old meeting room. Of volcanic origin marked with godly symbols. Now, it has to be from the antebellum years, so-"

"Auntie who?" My ear flicked and my tail swished.

Rune Stone rolled her eyes. "It means pre war years."

"We have had a lot of wars." Thirty seven that were recorded.

"Pre Commander Keytain years."

"Ah, gotch you." I smiled.

"No, you don't." Her wings spread out slowly as she stepped forward. Her chest rising and falling rapidly.

"It was an expression." My tail flicked. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Just a little bit winded from the shock." Her tail lashed again. The feathers around her chest fluffed up then shook before settling back down again. "As is expected."

"Yes." I glanced towards Damian.

"What was I talking about?" Her wings shifted again. "Oh, right. The room. Godly symbols could mean ancient temples, but those are for one god not all."

"Actually, it used to be common practice to build a temple to all the gods in conjured territory. Though they were usually small things. Barely a table in a house small." Damian raised up his left front paw then set it down. "At least during the initial invasion, afterwards, they would build larger temples to each god."

"Yes, they would. Though Starmane was against the practice while she was alive."

"Starmane?"

I smiled. "Starmane was the first leader of the Volcanic Plains. She was the first to stand up against Sekhmet in the Old World."

Rune Stone nodded. "Oh." Then her eyes widened and she fluffed up her feathers again. "Maybe, this was something she made."

I shook my head. "Not likely. The stonework showed signs of dragon influences in it, so it has to have been third year colonal. Or older." Most likely older. Stone work didn't become that good until Commander Firebrand's reign.

"I will take your word for it until I see it with my own eyes." Rune Stone turned to Damian. "Is there anyway inside that isn't through that door?"

"Not the Boomer or Cyclone found. Though it should have an escape tunnel into it, so the people inside could avoid a seizure. Most Volcanic architecture features it. Pre-Keytain era, at least. Commander Rosita fazed it out as her control issues. Though Saris was trying, but like the sex, she failed. Mostly thanks to General Theodosia's influence."

"Okay, so right now, Adelita is-"

"Call me Delta."

"Alright, Delta is the only one who can go inside, that we know of, so we should send her in and get some pictures." Rune Stone coughed. "Madame Lunette's should have one according to Steadfast."

"And we really shouldn't ask how he knows that." Damian laughed.

"What?"

Damian glanced at me with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, inside joke."

"He slept with her back in the day when she was still a stage magician at the Pharaoh."

"Ah." My tail flicked.

Damian snorted."And I'm not supposed to be crude?"

"No," Rune Stone and I said at almost the same time. I looked at her and started to laugh gently.

"Okay." Damian pouted. "Meanies."

"You really need to learn to insult better."

"And you need to learn-"

"Enough. I wish to see this room before my feather's fall out." Her tail lashed and her wings twitched.

"Okay." 

I followed Rune Stone and Damian as they led the way back out of the tunnel and into the bright moonlight outside. My feet sank back down into the loose sand. Never had I been sadder to lose packed sand.

~Kieran~

Seraphine was pacing around my room. Her claws making a sharp clicking sound that managed to come just when I was interested in the information in front of me. I lowered the document, I held and glared at her. Ryu was scattering after her. I briefly wallowed in the knowledge that I should have been able to sense him without looking, but I pushed it away, just as quickly when my irritation returned full force. "Why are you still here?" Seraphine finally stopped though the clicking still rang in my ears for a few seconds afterwards. She smiled then walked over to my bed and fell down on it. I barely managed to grab the documents misplaced by her actions with my magic. I glared while Seraphine smiled brightly.

"I think I'm in love."

"Wonderful. Shall I alert the media?" My tail flicked then curved around me to curl around my knee. 

Seraphine laughed. Ryu bounced up and landed on her stomach with a sharp hiss. "No, bad dragon." She picked him up and set him in my lap with a sharp look. "Stay there."

"You shouldn't talk to him like that. He is smarter than most people."

Seraphine bumped against me. "Yep, but he is still a kit that needs a scolding ever now and again." She looked down at him. "You know, I think he likes it. Who knew little Ryu could be so-"

I glared at her then I hissed sharply. "Sera. Not even a year old."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Alright. Now, I'm sure you want to know who it is?"

"No."

"Yes, you do." She glared at me for a long second while I shuffled my papers back into relative order. "Now, her name is Moira, she is a guard around her and she is adorable. A little young, but," she shrugged," who isn't anymore? It seems like everyone our age has become kits." She sighed.

I nodded. "Yep. Though I think it is, because while our physical age was maintained along with our emotional state, our mental age kept advancing." Or something like that. I have been trying not to think about it, since it made my relationship with Kalima seem a little creepy to me. At least, we weren't mating.

"Maybe. Or everyone is just too young for me. Great, first everyone is going to forget about me, now, I can't even get anyone to listen to me." I bumped against her. A purr rumbling out of my throat. "Ah, thanks, little brother."

I huffed. "You're welcome." My tail curled around her waist. "Is she cute?"

Sera laughed. "Of course, that's probably all she is though." She sighed. I bumped against her again. "Well, we should get going. The dragon lady isn't going to wait long." She stood up. I dropped my tail quickly. "Are you even dressed?"

"No. You distracted me while I was reviewing the information we have on her. I was going to get dressed afterwards." My tail flicked. Ryu sat up and stared at me intently. I stared back and he looked away quickly. His red scales flicking. I looked deeper. They should not be doing that, but he turned his head back and it was gone. I filed away what had just happened and stood up. "I'm going to get dressed."

"Okay. I'm going to finish up the details on mine. I was thinking of a burnt scena accent color."

"I have no idea what you are talking about, but go for it."

"Okay. Or tortoiseshell." Ryu grumbled. He bounded down for the bed, his wings popping open as he fell onto the ground. "Do you want to help?"

I turned and walked out of the room while she continued to baby talk him. Kottr was sitting on top of a pile of white clothes inside the washroom. Sora was paddling around in the large, gold plated wash tub. Four gold dragon heads poked out of the structure. I continued through the room and into my closet off the side of the room. My two baskets sat inside of it, just behind the door. I picked up the left one and grabbed the blue uniform on top. I put it on, dropped my old ones in the right one, and walked back into my room. 

Seraphine had left, so I picked up my brush then ran it through my hair until it didn't snag on a single knot. I set it down, picked up my papers, shuffled it, and finally, I placed them inside a drawer then closed it tightly. 

I tapped the front of the drawer twice and it glowed bright gold and dark blue. It reminded me a lot of Aunt Iz's. I mean, Red Rose's. Not together any more. Can't call her that. Even if- No, move forward. Never back.

I plastered a smile on my face and walked out of the room. The two guards outside shot to attention. Their wings swished back behind them and their hands gripped their spears tightly. I walked past them and they followed behind me at a distance. I was a little irritated that I was the only one they assigned guards to, but I had to admit it was a logically sound choice which annoyed me even more. "I'm going to breakfast."

"Most important meal of the day," One said.

"Yep," the other said.

They continued to follow me as I tried to follow the maps attached to the walls. Though making everything out of crystals was a huge headache. Finally, I reached the door that led into Priestess East's dining room. The guards in front of the door opened it and I walked inside.

Kiera was sitting at the table with her back to me. Her hair was up and she was wearing a light blue dress with a white sash. She looked extremely uncomfortable. Next to her was Destiny in a golden gown. It was not her color. Nix was sitting on her other side wearing a green suit. Jinx was sitting next to him also wearing green, but hers was darker with lighter green frogs on it. Doe was wearing a dark pink dress with a large pink hat. Ayala was wearing a light, almost watery, blue. Seraphine hadn't changed her clothes, so I couldn't help, but it was a little hypocritical that she asked me about my clothing choices.

I let my eyes drift to Kalima. She was wearing a dark purple dress that accent her figure. Sera must have helped her with her clothing. Diana was sitting behind her, looking at me. It was strange to have a dragon eye you. Especially one as large as she was. Fay sitting by her, wearing a dark orange dress, and fidgeting with her first course fork. I walked around the table and sat down next to Fay and I waited for East to make an appearance.

The room was quiet. Almost deafeningly so. Finally, I had to break the silence or I was going to go mad. "So how is everyone doing?" Not the most clever or witty thing to say, but it was something. Everyone gave customary greetings, then felt silent again. Well, that was a load of nothing. The doors opened and East walked in, dressed in an elaborate golden gown with her white hair covered by a golden cloth with black dragons on it. She sat down next to me.

"M'aiq will not be joining us. Darlings," She waved a golden paw and servent walked in. Each was dressed in either black, silver, or gold though the cut of each was exactly the same and each carried either a golden or silver tray marked with a sun or moon. They set down the trays then stepped back. When each tray was down, they lifted up the top and vanished. "Well, dig in."

I looked over each dish. They were visually spectacular, but I would bet that they tasted horrible. I lifted up a bun decorated with sugar and stamped with a black dragon. I bit into it. Too much butter, but pretty good. Stupid cooks. Being good at their job. 

I took another bun then I pulled the stir fry over to me with my magic. I put it on my plate then looked around as I munched on a bun.

Aside from the table, there wasn't much. A few pictures and the guards around the room. Four in total though only two were visible without true sight. The door pushed open and Sora walked in followed by Kottr and Ryu. Sora snapped up some jerky from Keira's plate which earned her a swat from her. Kottr walked up to me and stole some meat from my stir fry then snapped up the remaining bun. Ryu plopped down next to Fay who slipped him a few bites of the fish on her plate. Diana rumbled loudly. I think it was a laugh.

"Marvellous creatures," East said as she leaned over to scratch Kottr's head. His tail wagged and he rumbled out a purr-like noise. "So majestic."

"Yep. Until they throw in your bed."

Diana rumbled again then leaned over Kalima to pick up a whole bass then threw it up and snapped her jaws around it. "Beautiful."

"Thank you," Kottr said.

"And so smart. I didn't know that Dragons could speak." Kottr's smile became forced and I felt the happiness in him fade. I scratched under his wing and it returned quickly. He was always so happy. It was cute. Sora walked around the table and headbutted against him sharply then went back to Keira who slipped her a sweet bun. I pulled the sweet bun tray to me and picked up two. I set the tray back down about where it was. I passed one to Kottr and he scarfed it down. He nipped my finger. I popped his nose and went back to eating. I decided to eat the sweet bun next and it was soaked with the sauce from the stir fry. It gave it a good flavor. 

Soon enough everyone had eaten their fill and we ended up being left to our own devices. Kalima and I ended up in the library together. Just reading. It was nice.

~Fay~

I hummed lowly as I watched the moonlight drift across the fountain in front of me then I looked down at the rough drawing in front of me in my sketchbook. The ripples in the water were giving me trouble to get the shading right. The light fractured when it hit the water causing it to glow brightly and it was impossible to get it right. The door behind me opened and small, light footsteps came from it. I turned my ears towards the sound. "Well, hello, dear," Destiny's mother said. 

I set down my sketchbook and turned to face her. She had changed her clothes. They were blue and silver this time. "Hello."

"Enjoying the moon garden?"

I nodded. "Yes, I am."

"Lovely. I was hoping to speak with you. Well, not you in particular. Any champion would do, but I am glad it was you." She sat down next to me.

"Okay." Way to make me feel special. "What do you want to speak to me about?"

"My mate doesn't wish for me to tell you this. He can be very-" She smiled and shrugged-"strong willed, but the fate of our nation depends on this. So I shall just tell you. The Sun stone has vanished."

"The what?" My tail flicked slowly. 

She blinked then sighed while raising her hand. Her magic glowed brightly in dark green and gold before it morphed into a small stone. It was dark in color with a golden sun on it. "This is the sun stone granted to my people by the goddess Phyrrah before the gods left this world. Two nights ago, the stone was stolen from my quarters."

"So," I drew out the word. Destiny's mother rolled her eyes and sighed.

"So this stone contains the power of the sun at high noon. It can cause the sun to rise at midnight or lower it permanently to cause night eternal upon the land. It is a huge honor to guard it. Well, at least, it was." She sighed. The illusion flickered and died. "I have no idea who stole it or who would even want to. This knowledge has been kept secret. Destiny didn't even know, so I need you to find it and bring it back without anyone knowing. At least outside the champions." She smiled lightly. "So do you accept the mission?"

"I will have to ask the others, but I am sure we can do it. It shouldn't be too hard." I shrugged. After the Lady in Red incident, it would be wonderful to have something easy to ease us into this. I mean, that was fun and all, but fearing for my life against a goddess is a yearly thing, at most. Thank you.

Destiny's mother stood up and smiled at me again. "Thank you. Make sure you tell me exactly when you find it."

"I will. Who else would I tell?"

"I have no idea. Now, I must attend to a matter in the city." She turned and walked out of the room. I picked up my sketchbook, turned the page, and started to draw what I remembered of the sun stone from her illusion. 

The door opened again. I looked up. Ryu was walking in with a pink bow around his neck. "Nice accessory."

He reached the fountain and bounced up, flapping his wings for balance as he landed next to me. "What are you doing?"

"Drawing." He nuzzled against my side, pushing with his head against my elbow until I lifted my arm and allowed him into my lap. He turned around in my lap then leaned onto his back paws. I shifted slightly and he moved his tail down my leg. I booped him on the noise and he chortled

"What are you drawing? Is it me?" He shoved himself towards the sketchbook. I lifted it up, so he couldn't see. Destiny's mother had said not to tell anyone aside from champions though I don't think she thought of the dragons as actual people. 

I leaned over and scratched at his chin. He stopped trying to get my sketchbook and chittered excitedly, his head bumped against my side.

"He is a cute little dragonet." My head shot up at the unfamiliar voice. A woman dressed in a long red sari walked into the room, a golden circlet sat on top of her long, red curls. Something about her reminded me of the Lady in Red, but different. I couldn't be sure if it was a good difference though. "Is he your bonded?"

I nodded. "Yes, he is. Who are you?"

She laughed, a high, haunty sound at odds with the deep voice she spoke with before. "Me? My name is Rowenna, Lady of the Hunt to the Sun Temple. And you must be Felicity, companion to the Princess and Champion of Phyrrah, correct?" Her ear flicked. A white spot stood out on it.

"Yes." My ear flicked. That wasn't my first choice for an adult name, but it was mine. Aunt Kisa always did say the gods worked in mysterious ways. Mostly Set, though. "This is Ryu." He chirped.

"Yes, I know. Now, I have some information for you. The sun stone is now in The Night Bringer's possession." Her tail flicked as she walked towards me. Golden butterflies shone in the light around us on the hem of her dress.

"Who?" Must be some incredibly dangerous god-tier threat we are going to have to fight. Wonderful.

"The Night Bringer." She clicked her tongue at me sharply. "What has the world come to? Tiamat fought against her and Sekhmet in the old world? She threatened to blot out the sun?" I continued to stare at her before she sighed. "Alright. Now's not the time for a history lesson. You need to find the sun stone and the champion's council before she turns off the sun."

"Why?'

She stared at me with wide eyes for a minute before she breathed in deeply. "Because you are a champion. This is basically your life now."

"So because you said so?" My tail flicked. Something rose at the back of my throat. "That sounds pretty stupid. How do I know you aren't the Night Bringer luring me into a trap? I don't know." I was screaming. I have to calm down. I can't lose myself. Deep breath in, deep breathe out. Now, again. Repeat again. Close your eyes. Don't let it out. Do it again. And again. Good. You are calm now. Open your eyes. Breathe in again.

"-Are you okay?" Really? She was just now noticing? No, don't let it out again. Keep it in.

"Yes." I stared at her down. She stepped back slightly, her ear flicking. "Okay, let me get this straight."

"Oh, I can never get anything straight." I glared at her as she chuckled brightly. "Go on." 

I growled. "Anyway, you have information about the whereabouts of an ancient artifacts that has been kept secret for generations?" She nodded. "An artifact has since fallen into the paws of a world destroying ancient deity?"

"Claws, but yes."

"And I am supposed to trust you when you say you aren't this world conjuring deity?"

"Also, yes."

"Okay." I breathed in deeply. "This is ridiculous."

"Yep. That's what I said, but orders are order, VG."h

"What?"

"VG- Volcanic Girl." I sighed. And I get an incredibly annoying nickname. Yay. Today is getting better and better. "Look, I know this is a lot of just trust me, but I can't say anything until it's done besides what I just told you. My captain would have my tail served on a bed of rice if I did." Her voice changed, a slower lilt to it now. Kind of like Aleksandr or Lyra's accent. "So, do this and I will tell you everything."

"And that everything is?" My tail had a knot tied in it from all my lashing.

She sighed. "Find. The Night Bringer has taken over the upper rings of Sekhmet's cult. We have been watching them for years, bringing the ones that want to leave to strongholds and families. One of the ones we have been working on has been called to the Night Bringer's quarters recently and hasn't been reported back. So when the sunstone disappeared, we knew it must have been connected, but we are spread thin at the moment. We need more people, so the captain decided to recruit the champions into our ranks. Along with a few others. This literally all I know of the situation, but an operative will be waiting there for you that will know more about the situation." She exploded into a cloud of golden butterflies that flew off. 

Well, that was a little overdramatic. I stood up, lifting Ryu in my arms, and walked out of the room. I needed to call someone about this. Don't know exactly who though. Probably, Freya. I should do it alone though. I was given the mission, but what if it doesn't work. What if it does and everyone hates me afterwards? My tail was lashing. My breathing was labored. I needed. . . Something. I don't know what. 

There was the flapping of wings behind me then the prick of talons. I turned my head to meet Ryu's gaze. I bumped my head against his with a slight purr. I focused on Ryu's breathing and tried to match his.

My feet moved across the floor. The door opened. And I was outside surrounded by the smell of sun warmed sand and horses. 

A tall, black stallion eyed me from behind a stall door. 

I moved down the stalls until I reached an old, sand colored mare in an unmarked stall. She nickered and eyed me as I opened up the door. She shook her head. There was a slight thumping and suddenly the taste of pepper filled my mouth "Who are you?" Am I imagining things? Did the horse just speak? And why am I craving sweet peppers? I hate them. I’ve always hated them. Ever since I was a kit.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, but I went on vaction for a week and then Season Five of She-Ra came out, so most of my attention went to that. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

"Who are you," the mare spoke again, raising up a forehoof and glaring at me. Her off-white tail whipping side to side.

"Are you talking?"

"Are you an idiot?" She tossed her head sharply with a snort. "My last rider was an idiot and I tossed them. Very high. They squealed. It was very funny." Her ears pricked up. 

"Wait." She leaned close to me and sniffed. "Are you maximilian's mother? 'Cause he talks about you constantly. Annoying, really." She nickered lightly. "Well, not real mother obviously. But still."

"Uh, no." I shook my head sharply.

Her right ear flicked twice. "Oh, well. You smell nice, so I think I'll trust you, but you are on very, very thin ice. What is ice anyway? My granddam told me it is cold and Ma told me it is whitish."

"Frozen water." I drew out each word as I worked through the word in my head.

"Frozen?" Her eyes widened.

"Yes." I nodded.

Her tail swished and she eyed me. "Explain."

"Cold turns liquids into solids. Mostly water, but everything can get cold enough."

"Oh. Strange." She looked around. "What brought you to my humble abode?" She nickered.

"Nothing." I looked away then back.

She walked forward and bumped against my head with her nose. "Sure. Like my great aunt after a spill." Her warm breath tickled my skin through my fur. "Come on. You can tell your Aunty Coco."

"Your name is really Coco?"

"Yep, my last rider was a little loco in their coco. So that's what they named me. Very demanding. Go faster, always faster. So I threw them. Now, I am a free horse and they haven't come back." I think she smiled, but I was a little slow on expressions. Always have been. Especially on animals. "And what's your name. little filly?"

"My name is Felicity of Pride Domina. Call me Fay."

"I had a filly named Fay. Well, Fay dancing under bright sparkling stars, that's what they named her, but I called her Fay. Sweet thang, but she left."

"Oh." I leaned forward and petted her shoulder. "Sometimes, these things just happen. You know, sometimes."

Her ears pricked forward. "Well, yeah. She had to be saddle taught sometime."

"Oh."

"What did you think happened?" Her tail swished.

I looked away. "Nothing."

"Sure. Now, that introductions are out the way. Do you trust me enough to tell me. I mean look at me." She lifted her right hoof and tossed her head. "I'm stunning."

"Yep. You could say that." She nicked in what I think was supposed to be a laugh.

"What are you doing?" I turned around. Aleksandr was sitting on top of the stall door. His tail swinging side to side.

I looked from him back to Coco then back again. "Nothing. What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you. Delta decided to call a meeting or something like that. I didn't get the whole story." He scooted forward then stopped. He looked down then back to me with a sheepish smile. "Can you help me down? I just remembered I hate heights."

I rolled my eyes then walked forward. I grabbed around his waist and set him on the ground. "Come on."

"How are you so strong?" I snorted sharply and continued walking. I didn't have time to listen to idiots. A few horses called out a few obscene things that I chose not to comment on. I heard pawsteps behind me. My ears turned towards it and I sniffed twice. "I mean really." I sighed and turned my ears front way as I opened the door in front of me. It led out into the sand dunes. The moon was high in the sky. A few clouds drifted in front of the moon then seemed to stop there for several seconds. "It's pretty out there."

"Yes. It is." I flicked my tail slowly. Each step caused a different chain of events. Sometimes, I had to keep my balance by twisting my tail and other times, I just sank down to my ankles. I watched where I put my feet carefully to avoid any dangerous creatures. I glanced forward. Making sure, I was heading towards the city still.

The desert is host a wide assortment of magical creatures that would adore a Kanji for a moonhigh snack. My tail flicked faster. My ears twisted.

A cold wing rushed by. My feet hit stone. I looked up to see a large silver door in front of me with large, black dragons on the handles. Two suns were on either side. "What's that?"

I didn't jump. I don't jump. I turned to glare silently at Aleksandr. "A door." I walked forward. A light silver aura surrounded it. A ticking sound came from inside of it. I walked forward.

"I know that. I mean what is it doing out- Don't touch it.”

I stopped my hand a few steps from hitting the door. "Why?"

"Because it is a door in the middle of nowhere."

"We are barely a walk from the crystal city, this isn't the middle of nowhere." I traced the door with my eyes trying to figure out what it led to.

"You're right. Maybe we should open it." I nodded then grabbed the door handle. I pulled it hard and the door slammed open. It was dark inside, but there was a type of light glow. I walked inside. The world flickered around me and finally, it settled into a large room. I looked around it. The walls were light grey-blue and seemed to be made of stone. Though I couldn't tell you which type of stone. Along the walls were small arches built out of the wall around larger holes. They were eggs shaped. A thick layer of greyish dust covered the walls and the floor. Thankfully, I didn't see any cobwebs.

"What is this place?"

"So glad, you asked, young champion." I turned. A silver wolf sat on a red pillow, his paws crossed underneath his head. "This is the treasure room. I am Fenris, Guardian of Sanctuary. Call me Fin." He stood up and walked towards me. He had dark colored eyes. "You are Phyrra's, wait, no, Artemis's champion, yes?" He wagged his tail sluggishly.

"Yes. I am. How do I know that I can trust you?"

He sat down and stared at me though he didn't meet my eyes anymore. It made me feel a little safer."That's what they all say." He plopped his paw against the stone. "Well," he stood up,"come with-" A thump came from behind me. I turned my head slightly to see Aleksandr, sitting on the ground and rubbing his back.

"Ow." His ears turned and stared at us. "Why is there a wolf in here?"

"Why is there an annoying teenage boy in here?" Finn growled at him.

"Are you british?"

"No. I am not. I went to london for my junior years and feel in love with the accent." Finn growled then barked loudly.

"Okay." Aleksandr looked at me. I shrugged. This was life now. We should just get used to it. Talking animals and monstrous gods out for blood. At least, we weren't going to get bored any time soon. "Where are we?"

"Sanctuary, apparently."

"People used to get a lot more excited about it." Finn rolled his eyes.

"I don't do excited." I crossed my arms.

"No, she doesn't. It's a little intimidating." I glared at him for a minute, but he kept on smiling. Idiot. Annoying idiot. "Anyway, what is sanctuary." Stupid, annoying idiot.

Finn bared his teeth. "I'm so glad you asked." The lights went out suddenly. Something knocked my feet out from under me though it was soft, so I didn't mind much. A pop sounded from in front of me and a circle basket appeared in my lap. I reached forward and picked up what was inside of it and shoved some of it into my mouth.

Buttery and salty. A little bit crunchy.

"Oh, popcorn. Yummy." I turned towards where I heard his voice, but it was hard to stare at someone when you don't know where they are. "Thank you, mcwolfster." Was that racist? Should I call him on that? I turned back forward as a spot light appeared. I blinked a few times as I tried to rid myself of the black and white splotches in my vision. When I could finally see again, Finn was standing in the middle of the spotlight with a black snake skin hat with two golden feathers attached with a yellow gardenia. He had on a matching suit with a yellow rose in his pocket and a golden cane.

"Well, Sanctuary is the home we-"

"Is the wolf singing?"

"Yes and his name is Fin."

"Why?" I turned to look at him.

"Because that is his name." My tail flicked slowly.

"Finn seems like a name you give a goldfish or a dolphin at a zoo." He shook his head sharply. "Not a wolf."

"Well, he said his name is Fenris, so-”

"Like the wolf that is going to destroy earth in Norse mythology? Should we even be in here still? How do we know he isn't going to eat us?" I turned back to Finn. He was kicking the air in wide arches. "Beside from that fact, he is doing a musical right now."

"Eh. I think I can take him. You might die, but-"I shrugged-"I'm not going too. Plus, we don't know where the door is yet. Anyway, he probably poisoned the popcorn." I smiled sharply as I heard Aleksandr start to cough harshly. "Again, you. Not me."

"How do you know it won't affect you?"

I smiled. "Because I am Volcanic."

"That doesn't tell me anything."

"I don't have to tell you nothing. So there."

"Hey." I turned towards the wolf now in a frilly purple dress in a blond wig under a straw bonnet with a darker purple ribbon while a white parasol rested on his shoulder. "I'm not just doing this for myself. There will be a quiz afterwards, so actually pay attention." His voice dropped to a mumble. "Really, My champions were much politer." He sniffed. A pair of small glasses appeared on his nose. "And they smelled much better. Sweat and fear. Disgusting." He growled softly. "And they dressed much better. Can't even do a proper dress for the situation." His tail swished harshly. "All right, and a one, a two, and a three." He pointed up and orange fireworks blew up around a black banner with the words: Champions on it in orange.

He started to sing in a loud, jazzy tone. It was all the rage now in the crystal city especially on the flying boat parties. Blitz was always complaining about having to turn them around. A couple times, she came back smelling of stale pee and she wouldn't talk to me for a week after the last time.

The song continued, but I couldn't focus on the lyrics. Something would always distract me: a bright flash, a weird flash of memories during a few bits, and finally, wondering where he was conjuring all of this from. Somewhere obviously, but I just couldn't focus on anything. Something about this place made me feel. Wrong. Unfocused. I didn't know which it was, but I know I felt something I didn't like.

Someone grabbed my shoulder gently. I snapped my arm back and growled as I looked up into Aleksandr's wide, yellow eyes. "What?"

"Um. The, the song ended, and you seemed. A little out of it. I was wondering if, you know, you were poisoned."

I stood up. "I told you it is impossible to poison me." I lifted my head up and walked right into my chair. I yelped sharply and cursed death on ten people's mothers. It was obviously a normal reaction and my fur wasn't heating up from the embarrassment, but from the fact I was angry. That was definitely what was happening. Something started to slip inside me and something must have gotten in my eyes as they started to water in that moment. Someone stepped closer to me. I growled. The world seemed to be pressing into me. Slower and slower, things seemed to free in the air. I could count the dust in the air as it settled and landed and new dust took its place. My talisman grew warm against me and things seemed to get better. Things sped back up to normal, but my eyes continued to water. "I can't."

A tail rubbed against my legs as Finn walked up behind me. "I know how you feel. When I was chosen, I was a lot like you." He turned his head. "Why don'tca run along and tell your squadmates to come meet me. We have a lot of work to do to make this place like it was."

"What do you mean?"

"I will explain it when everyone is together here. Not a moonturn sooner. Sunturn? What time is it?" His ears pricked. "What day is it?" His nose scrunched up. "Just go and tell the others. I'll tend to her. I have some experience in the healing arts." I heard footsteps from behind me. I turned my ears towards them without even thinking too much about them. Aleksandr must have left. Serves me right, I guess. I drive nearly everyone away and I can't stop it. I can barely even try anymore. "Now, champion. I need you to listen. Can you listen? I never did. Still don't mostly. Though there really isn't much to listen to. I haven't gotten around to installing tvs yet." He laid down behind me. His head rested on my right knee and his tail on my left.

My ears moved around slowly from left to right then back again. My tail flizzed and lashed outwards. "What's a TV?"

"Good. You can ask questions. Now, a TV is basically an illusion box that tells more than one story."

"An illusion box?"

He raised his head and looked at me. "You really don't know? What has the world come to out there."

"I do not know and I do not know why you have decided to get so high and mighty all of a sudden." I growled.

"All of a sudden? Young lass, I have been pompas since before your milk-blood ancestors ran the ancient plains." His tail raised and he snorted sharply. "And as for an Illusion box. If you have composed yourself enough not to need my assistance, I can go and fetch one."

"I am perfectly alright."

"Sure, you are. But I will go get it anyway." He stood up and shook himself off. A large plume of dust shifted off of him. I raised my arm to block some of it from reaching me, but it merely protected my eyes from it. Finn huffed and handed me a handkerchief that I didn't see where it came from. One second, there was nothing and the next, he had a napkin in his mouth and was gesturing for me to take it. I took a hold of the end and he let go. He turned and walked towards the door. He turned back to me as he lifted his paw. A bluish white light flashed from the wall and the door slid open. "Would you please try not to main yourself while I am gone. I don't want to have to clean up before your friends arrive." He bared his teeth though there didn't seem to be any malicious intent there when he did so.

I growled and he walked out of the room. The door rolling back behind him. I took a chance to look around again. Something had left the room with the others, I could tell what, but the room seemed a lot larger, but seemed to close in on me as I stared around it. pawsteps echoed around me and the door slid back open to reveal Keiran and Kalima followed by Kottr, Sora, and Ryu. Ryu squeaked and skittered across the floor until he reached me and climbed up to rest on my head. His tail whipping against my nose as he fought to steady himself with three short chirps. "Hello to you too, dragonling."

"It's hatchling. Not dragonling," Sora said as she walked across the floor her talons gripping tightly to the stone. Kottr walked behind her with a grumpy expression before he sneezed and unleashed two quick bursts of fire. "Kottr has an allergy to dust." She bopped him on the nose with her tail with a smile on her muzzle or as close to a smile as most dragons got. Kottr stomped out the small flames that had settled on the floor.

"Yes, I am. I think facing the lady in red again would be alot easier." He grumbled deeply in his chest before he turned to Sora with a smile. "Though the view is a lot nicer than then."

Sora turned to him and cocked her head to the side. "What'ca mean? We were back at the palace during the attack." She wrinkled her nose up and puffed out a small smoke ring. "I think at least. Things get a bit foggy after the beginning."

"It's the magic she used to trap us under her spell in the mind garden," Keiran said. "That's what we decided to call it, right? Because that is what I have been calling it."

"It seems appropriate," I said. My voice sounded cold. Ryu stopped moving on my head then leaned down to my shoulder for a nuzzle.

"I thought so, too." Kieran seemed proud of himself. My tail flicked as I watched him. Kalima was standing a little way off and looking uncomfortable. Not bad uncomfortable though, just anxious uncomfortable. "Anyway, can you explain better than Aleksandr what's happening? Because he was just plain awful at it."

"A horse spoke to me. Aleksandr and I stumbled across this place and a wolf named Finn gave us a musical explanation of what this place is. I couldn't listen. I think I'm about to go into heat which should be impossible."

Keiran blinked. "You are even worse than Aleksandr at explaining things."

"I could have told you that." Kalima stepped forward and smiled at me then she frowned. "And it is the wrong season for you to be going through heat."

"She can't be going through heat. Maybe, she is having a reaction to something stored here. I have heard of some ancient places being charmed against berserkers, but this place doesn't feel like it is. Do you have a dust allergy? Asthma?"

"No to both. I had a physical before I became Kalima's shield sister and I am in the best physical condition of my life."

"Maybe, something triggered during Sekhmet's attack?" I flinched. Kalima glanced around the room. "Sorry. I thought it might be okay to say her name now since we defeated her once before."

"I just feel wrong." I tried to keep my tone level, but it came out much sharper than I had intended it to. Must be the stress. Have I eaten today? It could be low blood sugar. Nana used to complain about it all the time, but I never understood what it was. I always thought it was code for she was going for a quicky which Mom said I wasn't supposed to say though I didn't understand what it meant until much later. Stupid Georgie. He always got me into trouble.

"It's magic, alright." I turned to see Finn walk into the room, a basket with a white blanket on top clamped in his muzzle. He moved it to his paw. "But it ain't nothing too serious. Her body is just getting used to having magic is all." He shifted the bastet back to his muzzle.

“Weren't you british before?" I stared at him as he walked across the rest of the floor.

He stared at me with a deeply concerned look as he set down the basket. "No. I told you I wasn't."

"No you said you feel in love with the accent." His tail swished as he sat down.

"And I did. Doesn't mean I always keep it. I have fallen in love with many accents over the generations." He turned to me. "Now, you're a berserker, correct?"

I nodded. "Yes, I am."

"I thought so. You are going to get a lot worse before your body adjusts completely. It's attacking it like a virus. The others will probably get a slight fever when they finally, "he seemed to put special emphasis on that word and shook his hindquarters sharply," I'm going to have to call Emma again. I think some fleas got inside."

"Back to topic, what do you mean, Fay is going to get worse? How bad are you talking about?" I turned to Kieran and gave him a slight smile before a sharp pain hit right between my ribs. I hissed out sharply. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just a slight twinge. Around my ribs."

Kieran walked over. stepping just over Finn's back as he growled at him, and kneeled in front of me. "Where?"

I leaned back and flashed my teeth at him. "Personal space, please."

He backed up. "Sorry." He curled his tail around his ankles and stood up. Then he stepped back, almost tripping over Fin's back. "Is this part of her body adjusting to the magic?" He stared down at Finn who lifted his head up and shook himself.

"More than likely." He tilted his head back and forth.

"What do you mean 'more than likely.'" I said with a hard lash of my tail and bit back a hiss.

"Well, most berserkers are born male. Did you use a shift stone when you were younger." I shook my head sharply. "Too bad. Most of my information comes from the things I witnessed and heard, so it is mostly from a male perspective of the bonding." His ear flicked and he shifted to the left with a sigh. "So I don't know if this is something that will happen with a female berserker champion."

"So you are saying that you have no idea how she will take the magic becoming part of her," Kalima stepped forward and stared down at Fin, "She could die."

"No, she won't. It will be like a bad cold. Mostly. Okay, two weeks and she should be good to go."

My ears flicked. "I don't have two weeks."

"I know. Your teammates," He stared at me until I nodded, "should be able to find the sunstone easy enough. You can rest here in Sanctuary until it is returned and you can even help me decorate your new room."

"New room?"

Finn stared at Kieran then moved to Kalima and finally to me with a look of surprise. "It is customary for champions to have rooms at Sanctuary. For when they return from hard missions. Though they can be for anything. I once had a young charge who hid a kitten in his room from his mom."

"How old was he?" Kalima stared down at him.

"Oh, about eight or nine. Cute kitten, let me tell you, he was the best thing to come about from Talhani's mating."

"Talhani?" I tried to remember where I had heard that name from before, but I just couldn't remember. It was like my head was wrapped in a robe of unspun wool. The just brushed kind that Granny Nala loved.

"Yes, a champion. Berserker born, as well." Finn wagged his tail slowly and snorted harshly. "Ugh. Dust and sand." He shook his head. "Murder on my nose."

"Then you could have cleaned up," Keiran said.

"Yes. I should have, but you find that it isn't easy to do stuck on four legs." Finn growled then huffed. "And it has regressed without champions. The magic has faded from these halls."

"So this place is magic?" I glanced at Kalima. She was staring straight at Finn. "Like really magic?"

"Like Atantia's throne in Siren Tales?" Keiran looked at me with confusion. "What? I can read you know."

"And it came out as a special edition a few years back." Kalima breathed in deep then waved her paw through the air as she spoke,"'Learn where it all began in Queen Diana: Siren of the Deep.' Which I never really got because Sirens don't live in the ocean and it didn't have any sirens in it. There were a couple of mer girls who I think were together, but they never said, so it could go either way. And-" Kali looked around nervously, I tried to smile at her, but I don't think she saw it-"And I am getting way off topic, so, uh, please continue, Mr. Wolfie."

"It's Fenris or Finn. Not Mr. Wolfie."

"Yes, I know." Kalima smiled. "Please continue."

"Right. This is old, really old. A lot of magic has taken place in these halls, so it soaked into the place as magic tends to do. But when the gods left, the champions were disbanded. They all went different ways and never returned, so the magic faded away." He stared down at his paws. "Not quickly. It used the magic it already had to maintain, but as years went by, the magic was used up and the place fell into disrepair. And my magic isn't suited to cleaning. I tried. It was pretty bad." He bared his teeth and stuck out his tongue. "And I can't even get to most of my magic."

"Okay, this better be important." I turned to stare at Delta as she walked into the room with Seraphine walking after her.

"Yes." Seraphine nodded sharply. "It should be. It interrupted my date."

"It was a date?" Delta's nose scrunched up as she turned to Seraphine.

"I thought it was, It wasn't?"

"I didn't really put much thought into it."

"Oh. Well, next time-" Seraphine turned to look at Delta with a pleading expression that reminded me of the time Doe went on a diet. Horrible experience. No one is allowed to do it anymore. Sad, but necessary. "There is going to be a next time, right?"

"Sure, it was fun."

"Wait, I thought you were crushing on one of the guards." First, I was hearing about it, but I honestly didn't care one way or the other.

"Eh, she was mated, apparently and Delts wanted coffee. Win-Win, little brother."

"We are the same age."

"No, I'm a day older than you."

"We were born an hour apart." Keiran huffed sharply. "It just happened to be around noon."

"Yeah, but it makes me older." Seraphine crossed her arms.

"You two will argue yourself in circles without ever reaching a verdict, so please, be quiet and allow me to explain." Finn bared his teeth in an awkward looking smile that reminded me a little of Seraphine's. "Now, how many more champions are there?"

"Let's see, there is me, Kalima, Felicity-"

"Fay."

"Don't give out kit names like candy, Me, Kalima, Fay, Keiran, Seraphine-"

"I told you to call me Sera."

"I'm going to call you something if you people don't stop interrupting me every five seconds." Delta glared at them and I had to repress a small smile. She wasn't really mad. Especially not at me. "Okay, Me, Sera, Fay, Keiran, Kalima, Aleksandr, Lyra, Caterina-"

"Yes?" I turned to see the girl in question walk into the room followed closely behind by Lyra and Jinx. Jinx seemed to have lost control of her powers and dyed parts of her hair bright pink. Hopefully, they would fade quickly since it wasn't a good look on her. Red would be much better.

"What happened to your hair?"

"I got it streaked. The dresser lady said it was the latest style." Jinx smiled bright. "Do you like it?"

Delta glanced towards me with a pained expression. I sighed. I was going to have to be the bad guy this time. "Red would suit you much better."

Jinx paused and looked at me with a wide smile. "But I don't like red that much."

I shrugged and looked back around the room. Delta sighed and looked back at Jinx. "It looks lovely, but it won't be much good for sneaking. How soon does it come out?"

Jinx shrugged sharply with a chipper smile. "Two, three, four months. Depends. I wasn't really listening. Is Nixie here?"

"No." I shook my head.

"Oh, well, I hope he gets here soon. I want to show him my new look. Maybe when this one fades I'll get a green one." She turned to me. "Will that look better?"

"I don't know. Doe is the fashion one."

"Yes, she is." Jinx swished her tail and looked around. "Lots and lots of dust here. But no spiders. Wonder why that is?"

"Lack of substance in here. I may not be good at cleaning, but I know a few good resistance spells. Though Ti would always say I reminded her of a bug, but she would never explain why." Finn gave a soft smile. "Anyway, how many more?"

"Lets see. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. About ten," Lyra said with a snort. "Did you know they have coffee shops here that let you get fourteen cups of coffee. Just for me. Cat, only had one, they put in milk, so I had to cause a fuss, and they gave me my cups on the house and they were huge cups. Pretty epic deal, but then they cut me off after fourteenth and called a healer. I got a clean bill of health. Apparently, my magic burns off the caffeine at a quick rate or at least, that's what the healer said. I can't tell you if it's true, but everything feels wonderful. When I crash it is going to be horrible. I wonder if it's going to be like the crashing of atlantis."

Caterina put a hand on her muzzle with a sheepish smile. "Sorry. She gets a little coocoo on caffeine." Lyra nuzzled her hand then Caterina pulled her hand back with a grimace. "Ew."

"You didn't think so last night."

"No one wanted to know that." Kalima rolled her eyes away and huffed. Her tail was flicking harshly from side to side. "Gross. Gross. Gross." Overblown, but I agree, princess.

"It is going to be much harder to get you guys to focus on anything."

"Tell me about it. Training is impossible." I smiled at Delta. "Especially at moonrise. Sluggish and annoying."

"Thank you for your most illuminating opinion." I snorted quietly as Keiran glared towards Delta. "Most delightful of Ladies."

"The sarcasm is most appreciated, lord of," She stopped and scrunched up her face. "I don't know. Next time, give me more of a minute." She hissed softly. "To think."

"Yeah, like that would have helped." Keiran snorted and flicked his tail. Well, I'm glad they are getting along at least.

"Jerk." Delta's ear flicked harshly.

"Brute." Keiran snorted harshly. It sounded painful.

"That is incredibly insulting. I am incredibly smart, you know." Delta lifted up her nose and snorted sharply.

"Sure you are." Keiran rolled her eyes and snapped his teeth together twice.

"Why am I in charge if I'm not smart. It seems like a poor choice on your part." She stuck her tongue out.

"You are not in charge. We've talked about this. Several times."

"And I never paid that much attention to it. I'm in charge, because I said I was in charge. So there." Delta crossed her arms.

"I have forgotten how much fun it is to have teenagers around." Fin huffed and looked around the room. "Do you really care who is in charge?"

Delta shrugged. "Eh. Not really, but I was a little bored and it is fun to rile up Keiran." She smiled sharply.

"Ditto."

"That would make a good name for a dino." Jinx smiled and shook herself. "I got dust on my butt."

"So do most of us, sweetie." Delta patted Jinx on the shoulder.

"I know."

A door scrapped open behind us. Doe and Ayala walked in with Pinkie held in a weird holster on Doe's chest. There was a white lace bow on the front. "What in Freya's name is that?"

Doe looked down. "It's a dragon, Fay. They aren't exactly rare you know."

I rolled my eyes. "You know what I meant."

"It's a baby harness. Those merchants are really pushy and Pinkie Dinkie enjoys it." She scratches under her chin. Pinkie churrs happily. "Lala had to make a few adjustments to it, but it matches my dress. Doesn't it?"

"I don't care."

"You care. If you didn't care, you wouldn't ask."

I sighed. "I love you."

"Ah, I love you, too, you big idiot."

Lala smiled. "They were out of fabric anyway. At least the good kind, they had some of this floral cotton that looked like granny underwear, but I wasn't going to shell out what they were asking for. And the woman was acting like I was turning down rosespun silk." She hissed. "Idiots. All of them." She looked around. "Well, aside for Des. She is pretty smart."

"Yes, I am."

I turned to her. "When did you get here?'

"Just now."

"Oh. Where's Nix?"

"He and Keira went off to drool on some bow or something and I went shopping. I got some wonderful yarn in purple. Well, she said violet sunset, which I don't get, but I say purple. And a couple pretty pendants and beads. Danny said he would take them to my room for me so here I am." She smiled. "And Aleksandr was going to find them. Sofia should be along soon though. I met her on the way here. Though she had to make a detour because of a rally. I hate this time of year. Council elections. Horrible. Can't get anywhere in the city." She sighed. "Anyway, how is everyone?"

I stared at her. A few mumbles went through the room. It quieted down as my head started to pound. Spots danced in front of my eyes. I breathed in deeply as a chill set down into me. I stood up and stumbled over to Doe. She looked at me with concern. She said something. I couldn't tell what it was. My world hazed over. Well, this is unpleasant, I thought as my world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have an end of chapter question for all of my dear readers: Who do you guys ship in my story? And if you don't ship anyone, tell me what you like best about my story in the comments. I just want to see if I am on the right track with it.


	3. Chapter 3

All of us, aside from Kieran, had decided to gather in the main room after Fay had passed out especially since it had a table. Each of us had taken a seat even if Jinx had to nearly sit on Delta to get her down, even still she was twitching and restless. I was restless, too. My fingers kept finding my hair when I let my guard down. Twisting and braiding it as I glanced across the table at Aleksandr and Sofia who had arrived just after we had left Fay alone with the wolf-man and Kieran for healing. "So what are we going to do?" 

Everyone turned to look at me or at least it felt that way. "About," Delta said? Her tail flicked sharply against the table.

"Everything. I mean we were supposed to leave tomorrow." My tail flicked rapidly as I tried to repress the urge to nibble on it. Old habits are incredibly hard to break.

Delta sighed."I don't know. We need to go to the horse races, track down that missing amulet-"

"Sunstone."

"Thank you for that interruption, Aleksandr." She turned her head to look at him sharply.

"You're welcome." He smiled at her. She sighed. "Oh, that was sarcasm."

"Yeah. Now, horse races, sunstone thing, Fay's sickness, anything else I should know about?"

"Well, there is a spike in chaos energy in the swamplands, someone needs to check on that." I turned my head to see Finn resting his front legs on the table. "I could do it, but Sanctuary would literally crumble away into nothing without my magic now."

"So we need to do all this. We need to split into teams. Kali and Caterina need to go to the horse races. Keira, do you want to go with them?"

"No."

"Alright. Who wants to go with them?"

"Why do we have to go to the horse races," I said. My tail flicked itself aside the side of the chair. I didn't not want to go to them, but I didn't like that I had to go.

"Because Aunt Myra can't go, so Kali is expected to go to them in her place and I guess Caterina could get out of it, because she has been introduced to society yet, but that is merely a technicality. And it is best to keep up appearances. Someone's got to go with you though. Fay can't, of course. I could go. Nah. Fay wouldn't forgive me." She tapped the table with her claws harshly. "Lyra, you want to go?"

"Sure." She shrugged. "I already packed my dress for it."

"Good. So Des and Nix want to go with them?"

"Mom says I have to go anyway." Destiny shrugged. "Something about 'improving our image'. I don't get it anyway."

"I was planning on going anyway."

"Good. Next mission,"

"Which one?"

Delta blinked. "The magic surges. Aleksandr is going." She held up her right hand and started to count on her fingers.

"Why me?"

"You were chosen by a chaos god." Delta shrugged. "Keiran, Me,-"

"Wouldn't it make more sense to put Keiran on the sunstone mission?"

"Don't be magicist, Keira, and he was raised around chaos magic, he should be able to sense it."

"If Kieran is going, I'm going," Seraphine said.

"See, two for one deal." Delta flashed a smile to Keira, who huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Well, count me out. Last time, I was in the swamplands, I was covered in ticks. I'll take the sunstone mission." Keira slapped the table sharply then drew her hand up quickly. I guess, she hurt her hand while doing it.

"We don't even know where that one is."

"So? Better than swamplands."

"You know, we could always send just Kieran to the horse races. He could cast an illusion spell for the races to make it seem like we were there during the races and it would throw whoever did it off our trails while we investigated," Lyra said, gesturing with her hands sharply. Seems the coffee haze was starting to wear off. Good.

"No, I don't trust him. He would make me do something embarrassing." Seraphine shook her head harshly. "I just know it."

"Ah, the joys of siblings," Delta said with a snort. "I'm glad, I was adopted."

"Aw, we love you too, sis" Nix said with an almost identical snort.

"You know what I meant." 

Nix snorted then smiled. "Yes, I do, and Lyra's plan is pretty genius."

"Yes, it is, but it is pretty easy to see through. Eh, we'll just have to use the traveler's ruse."

"The traveler's ruse," I said. My tail swished sharply.

"Diarrhea."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Nasty."

"It worked in Queen Diana and the Curse Of the Wererabbit and Princess Diana and the Night of The Body Snatchers special edition."

"A wererabbit?" I turned my head to look at Aleksandr. He snorted. "That sounds scary."

"It was twelve feet tall with two rows of moving teeth and stronger than six griffins working together. Though only on Void nights which was a whole thing. According to the mythology section of the novel, they were based on ancient Kitsune myths of pookahs brought over from the old world. They are quite fascinating really. And they had really weird book binding processes according to Rose Quartz. She was really cross with them, but she wouldn't tell me why." My ear flicked. Kitsunes were good storytellers. Probably comes from moving around a lot.

"They used to bind books in tanned snake hide and sell them as authentic volcanic dragon skin at twice the actual price. Of course, it became a trend and snakes were almost hunted to extinction during this time until the queen back then actually declared snakes a crown protected species and raised several of them for her own personal use." I turned to look at Jinx. I didn't expect her to know any of that. She had always seemed like a bit of an airhead. Sweet and talkative, but not much on top. "What? I like reptiles." She shrugged.

'Back on topic, I like Lyra's plan. But we don't know if Keiran can actually cast that many illusions at once."

"I could ask him. Felicity is stable now and he was mostly staying because I left." Finn turned and left before we could say another word. A minute passed before he was pushing the door open again. "He said it was possible as long as nothing hit them during the race. And I should think it would be in good sense to inform your parents about your missions." Finn's tail wagged slowly. "Especially your Keira. As you are from the grasslands, correct?"

"Yes."

"How did you know," Kalima said.

"Elementary, my dear Watson. Elementary. She has a grasslands accent." Finn stood up on his back legs and set his paws on the table.

"That's it, sherlock," Lyra said? Her tone dripped with sarcasm. Caffeine crash. It made her cranky. And cute, but mostly cranky.

"Yes."

"Alright," Delta said as she set down a piece of paper on the table and a pin appeared in her paw. "So is it just Keiran going to the horse races?" Ayala raised her hand and made a series of gestures that I assumed were part of volcanic sign language. I really sould learn that. Delta made a series of marks on her paper before she looked at us again. "Anyone else?"

I shook my head. I had gotten bitten enough by horse flies to know I didn't want to be anywhere around that race. I looked around the room. Doe looked worried, but she shook her head. Ayala put a hand on her shoulder and bumped her head against the side of Doe's chair. "Okay, sweetie. I want to go on the sunstone mission." Ayala smiled at her. Doe stuck out her tongue.

"Okay," Delta made more marks on the paper. "That's all right?" I nodded and around the room, the others nodded as well. "Good. Now, Lala and Keiran are the only one going, so they are going to be team beta. Team alpha will consist of me, Sera, Aleksandr, Sofia-"

"Actually, I want to stay here with Fay. She needs someone to keep an eye on her until this is over."

"You are right. I assumed we would take turns." Delta turned to look at Finn. "We can come back here from anywhere right?"

Finn nodded. "Within reason, you need to make a door large enough for you to go through. If you can't do that, you can't come back here from there. Or if a place is warded. Or you are exhausted magicly. The doors only respond to your magic to open them. But other than that, anywhere, anytime. How did you know?"

"Because that is the way it works in Commander Keytain's Epic Life: A Musical Journey Into our past." She wrinkled her nose. "The songs were good, but it was a little gimmicky and lost a lot of historical accuracy when it made Rosita get with Lady Tatatia to cure her with the power of love. It was pretty bad over all."

Finn snorted loudly. "Rosita would have rather eaten her own shoes than get with that Hagraven bitc-"

"Language, please." Kalima covered her ears. I laughed once. She looked at me with mock betrayal in her eyes. "You wound me, dear cousin."

"Eh, twas but a flesh wound, thou shalt live to see another morrow."

"I thought shalt meant wouldn't," Aleksandr said.

I shrugged. "I'm not an expert on shakespearean language."

"He wrote some good plays,"Delta said. "Especially his comedies. Like that Donna and Juliet. No one would be stupid enough to do even half the thing they did for love."

"Romeo and Juliet was written as a tragedy," Aleksandr said. He looked at Delta like she had a second head mirroring my own thoughts almost exactly. Though the fact, that they decided to make it gay piqued my interest a little.

"It was? Well, it is a comedy in the Volcanic Plains." Delta waved her hand.

"Well, that says a lot about your people."

"That we are as cynical as a cup of black coffee?"

"What is even remotely cynical about a cup of black coffee?"

"I don't know. I liked the metaphor."

"Actually, that was a simile," I said. "Metaphors use like or as. You used as. I always got them confused on english test and the final paper." I failed the final, but my grade was still good enough to pass. Though I could do the school play that year. Which I was planning on since they were musicals and I can't sing very well.

"Don't worry. You won't need to know the difference when you're older." Delta smiled. "Just have someone check you when you talk."

"If I wanted someone to critique my speech, I would date my english teacher."

Delta looked at me suddenly with harsh intensity. "What do you mean date your english teacher? Are they hurting you?" Do you need me to kill someone, echoed back through my head as the translation.

"No," I shook my head quickly. "I was just saying."

"Good." Delta looked back at her list. She was still radiated an almost violent tension. "Let see, since Keira has volunteered for the sunstone mission, Nix will be coming with me on Team Alpha. Jinx, I think it would be best if you went with the Sunstone mission." Her eyes widened in panic. "To make sure they are safe. Doe, you are going with them, too, right?" Doe nodded. Jinx seemed to calm down then. "So Team Alpha is me, Nix, Aleksandr, Des, and Sera. Team Sickbay will be Sofia and Fay. Team Beta will be Ayala and Keiran. And Team Sunspot will be Keira, Caterina, Lyra, Doe, Jinx, and-" Her eyes went over the list again-"That's everyone. So let's meet back here tomorrow morning after breakfast. That will give us plenty of time to repack and get supplies for the mission. Plus," She looked at where Lyra had slumped over on the table. "I don't think we are going to get much done today aside from this." She tapped her claws against the table. "Keiran has first watch on Fay. Kali, do you want to stay? I can pack for you?" Kalima glanced towards the door then nodded. "Okay. Aleksandr, Caterina. You might want to get Lyra back to her room. Des, Nix, Keira, Doe, and Ayala go get the supplies we are going to need. Rest of us should get on packing and go to bed. We are going to have an early start. Any questions?" We all shook our heads. "Good. Let's go." We all turned and walked out of Sanctuary and into the bustle of the inner city. I looked back to see a sheet of white rock. Several names were carved into the side.

"It is lover's lane. Lovesick kits think think to charm fate into making their love last by carving it into stone. Anyone with real, true love wouldn't need such trumped up idiocy to soothe their fragile egos. They would actually work at it," I turned to look at Destiny. She was glaring angrily up at the wall then she turned to smile at me bashfully. "Sorry. I'm not really a romantic and it annoys me to no end that I'm supposed to be." Her tail was frizzed out and a rumble was building in her chest. Loud enough already that I could hear it over the distance.

"Because you're a girl?"

Destiny laughed. "Dragon lords, no. I'm supposed to be all dainty and sweet waiting for someone else to rescue me because I'm a temple brat. Non violencant, scholarly, and all that jazzaroo. That isn't who I am and Nix was the only person to actually see through that. Plus, he was pretty cool about almost getting his leg bit off by one of my traps. I think it is a volcanic thing."

"Well, they apparently think Romeo and Juliet is a comedy. Which I guess is better than thinking it is a love story." I snorted and rolled my eyes.

"I have no idea what that is." Destiny smiled at me.

"It's a play."

"Oh. Well, that explains it. I am not that big on plays. Mom forced me to go to one too many when I was a kit." She smiled then leaned close. "Can I tell you a secret? When I was young, I wanted to become a vigilante. The costumes, the witty lines. Oh, it just seemed like so much fun, but I sighed myself up for a city run course and the instructor laughed me off. So I bought a costume from a sketchy shop that later turned out to be for bondage gear and tried to fight crime in the city, but I was always behind the city guards, plus I am scared of heights really bad, and one day, Mom caught me with my costume on. She grounded me then she went about arranging a mating for me to 'bring me back to reality'. It just so happens that the next week, Nix asks me out. So I proposed to him, he said yes and here we are. Mom's plan foiled and I have a partner I like. Win for me."

"Why are you telling me this."

Destiny shrugged. "You seem trustworthy. Plus, it will tick Mom off that someone else knows our family drama."

"So it boils down to you having mommy issues."

Destiny blinked then nodded. "Yep."

"That actually explains a lot."

"Does it?"

"Yes, it does." I nodded.

"Come on. The others are long gone by now." She waved for me to follow after her as she walked away from the wall. I looked around at the place we were in. The buildings were crowded closely together, bright signs adorned each of the shops, and lanterns were strung between the rows of houses on either side. The street was the only thing made of crystal here. Each step made the crystal below me glow bright colors and hum a light melody that I could barely hear over the chatter around me.

"Where are we?"

Destiny turned to look at me. "The neuve rich part of town. See," She pointed at a nearby shop. "They can afford to have wood imported. Enough of it to build, too. So they went to the trouble of importing the wood and having someone build a place for them. That proves they are wealthy, but the fact that houses are just wood proves that it is new money. You see, the crystal creeps here. Up the side of the houses, through the gutters, so old money house are large and made of many different types of crystals as they expanded on the house." Her tail twitched. "Poor houses are usually small, built above the shops like these for the poorest. We call them indentured servants. They sell a contract for a number of years and in return they get a roof over there head and a meal a day." She gave me a tight smile. "Of course, no one really thinks about that around here." Her tail was lashing. She placed a hand on my back. "We don't have time to talk about that now. You need to get packing and I need to make sure Nix doesn't get scammed by the merchants again. Delta didn't take the last time very well."

"What happened?"

"Huh? Oh, she threatened to skin him. Later, he had a mental breakdown and almost ate his pet Zona." I looked at her. "Zona's are the national bird of Zonya. They were hunted down like Ki'rans for their feathers." I nodded as we continued the walk back to the temple without any talking.  
~Myra~  
My legs kicked against the back of the chair as I watched Estelle in the mirror. A sharp kick answered from my kittens. I groaned. Estelle flicked her ear as she watched me. "What's the matter, my queen?" Her grey hair was fading into a dark forest green, her fur shifting into a lighter shade of green. "The babe kicked?" The fur was soon replaced with scales as hard and unyielding as dragon skin.

I nodded. "Do you have anything to report?"

She smiled to revile needle sharp teeth. "Yes. The children are responding well to the treatments, but Old Blue is getting frustrated. We should tell him."

"We can't. Remember what happened with Aurora?" Estelle crinkled up her nose and flicked out her tongue.

"Yes," She drug out the s harshly. "I remember it well. Very well. It shall wait." She glanced away and leaned out of the frame. She appeared again in the frame holding a pink letter marked with a heart. "It seems dear Boomer has written us a letter."

My ear flicked. I thought through each of the changed until it clicked. Boomer. Young, hydra, daughter of Steadfast. "Oh, what has she written?"

She moved her hand along the seam of the letter and broke the heart. She unfolded it and read through what was obviously a short letter. "She seems to have regained more of her memories of her captivity and the change. Steadfast seems to become a good father, as you expected." 

I smiled. "Of course, I was. I am excellent judge of character."

"Would it be incorrect to assume that you are also looking for a report about the palace?" She smiled again.

"No, it wouldn't be."

"Well, Delphine is trying to usurp the throne again though her attempts have been met with mostly bored indifference by the servants. Evan has taken over packing for us and is attempting to court a stable hand. Sweet kit, but a little on the slow side." She sighed and shook her head. "I will never understand that temptation. And I am fabulous as ever. As you can see. Though I do have reports that King Harold seems to be recovering from his sickness." She smiled again as she bared her teeth. "Though it seems his mistress has taken to visiting him quite often." She looked at me. Her eyes were almost completely black now with the only hint at green being a small rim around her pupils. "Poor Amarilla seems to think it is her who is making him better, so King Harold will be taking her along to the horse races. My evening just seems to be getting better and better. Sitting between a vapid hangon and a leech. Princess Cleo will also be going with them according to reports." She tilted her head and stared at me. "It seems he will be seeking a betrothal or fostering for her."

"And what do you think we should do with this information?" My mind ran through each of the plans I had unfolding, but none of them involved the young kit.

"Well, she is about young Henrik's age, so we should pass along this bit of information to Freya. We will get another alliance into our hand and a claim to most of the thrones if only distantly. Cleo is rumored to be quite a doll. Though people will say that about any princess without the face of an ogre, as you well know."

"She is a charming girl, but simple. Not much is allowed to reach her in her ivory tower. Though one would think Henry was more interested in selling her off so she won't be the focus of the revolution anymore." Especially since she wasn't even his legal sister since she was born of a mistress. 

She laughed deeply. "No to all accounts, he actually seems fond of her."

"Good. Pass what you know about her to Freya. I need to call Kalima." I tapped the side of the mirror and it rippled like molten silver before it settled down again. I stood up. I had to reach the bathroom before the kitten decided to kick my bladder and disgrace me in public. I didn't need another 'medical emergency' because they thought my water was breaking early again. Kalima could wait a few more minutes anyway.  
~Boomer~  
My claws moved against the hard stone of the floor. Small rocks stuck against my webs and made me muffled a whimper more than once, but they wouldn't stop me. I had to see what Papa was working on down here. All of my eyes scanned along the room around me. A large door stood in front of me. Larger that Papa even. "We shouldn't have left Papa. He will worry." I started then turned my gaze to Number three. She blinked back at me. Her pink stained frills were raised high and her tongue was flicking out wildly.

"He won't worry. He won't know we are gone," Said number five, always the sensible one. I turned to her and nodded sharply. She had decided to keep her purple frills down for now.

"Who cares," Number Two followed this up with a hiss and a lash of our tail. I turned to her. Her red and orange frills were almost always up though now they seemed even bigger than before.

"I care." Back to number three. I couldn't move our feet until we had reached a truce with this issue. Stupid gods. Give me six heads and not even allowing me to move the body. What were they thinking?

"Of course, you care." I turned towards the new voice to see a large purple dragon reclining just out of my eye line on a ledge. She lifted up her single head to look at me. "So who are you?"

"I'm Boomer." I tried to remember what else I was supposed to say, but it all sounded a bit mean and over long to actually say.

"Daughter of Strong Hide the Vast," I turned to Number Four with a sharp hiss. She knew Papa hated that name as well as I did.

"No." I wiped the tail at her. She stopped it from reaching her by stepping with our foot. A short, dull pain raced up my tail and I whimpered.

"Now, now, dears. Don't get yourselves into a tussle." The purple dragoness stood up and unfurled her wings. The undersides were a light, almost pink-purple color framed by the dark bones running through it in the morning light. "What are you doing here?" She threw herself off of the rock into a glide and landed in front of me with a grace I could never match. Even when I had grown.

"Papa said Uncle Dami said that his cousin got in here and I want to go inside too." The dragoness chuckled. A deep rumble from out of her chest.

"Well, I haven't been inside, but my chosen has, so it stands to my reason that I will be able to get inside, too." She lowered herself down onto her belly. "Why don't you hop on and I will take you inside." I stared at her as I tried to think about if we should do this when Number Two had already decided to move our body. I quickly decided to go with it though I wasn't sure if it was really me or if Number Two was making me feel like it was. If she was it was very, very mean. I watched as we climbed up her wing. It wasn't as delicate as it looked as it held under my weight. Infact, it reminded me of rubber. Though my head ached when I tried to remember what rubber actually was. It was in the before darkness and I can't think of it. Bad things and pain lie in the before.

We settled in between her spine and the muscles connecting it to her wings. We all settled down into her and brought our tail to us. She walked up to the doorway and pushed it open. It seemed less dramatic than I had secretly wished it would be and at least Number Six and Number Three were disappointed as well. The dragoness turned her head to me and smiled. "My name is Nya, by the way."

"That's a pretty name," Number three said and I nodded too.

"Boomer is a pretty name as well. How did you get it?"

We all smiled. Number Six was the one to speak first though, her tongue flicking even as she spoke. "Papa named us that because Two blows things up alot. We do like it though."

The dragoness shifted her back suddenly though not enough to cause us to fall. "Sorry, dears. My back is in dire need of a scratch. Shedding season is almost here and it's driving me half mad." She swung her tail. "So how do I address you?"

We all cocked our head to the side. "What'cha mean?"

"Are you all one or are you separate?"

"Yes," We said together with a nod. Nothing more needed to be said. We were one and we were all. Nothing else.

Nya sighed. "Okay. What are your pronouns?"

We smiled and hissed. "I, She, and we."

Nya nodded. "Okay. Noted." She shifted her wings.

I looked down at her wings. "Do your wings shed too?"

"No, but my shoulders do. It is really to get that skin to break, but when it does you will have reached nirvana." She shuddered and we bounced along her back with small giggles though it didn't last long enough. I looked around the room since it was the reason we came here in the first place though it wasn't much fun to look at.

Suddenly something lit up in front of me a swirling mass of dark and black that drew me in like a magnet. I looked down at Nya and she seemed to be feeling it as we did since she stepped closer and closer until we were engulfed in. For minutes, there was nothing and the others were gone. I was alone and I didn't like it. But then it ended as quickly as it had begun and we were back. We all nuzzled against each other as we looked around.

Number Four flicked her tongue out. We all tasted the dampness in the air and suddenly something stirred inside of me. High, haunting laughter, the scent of mold and decay, and terrible blackness. Completely, totally, all consuming. Then it was gone and a girl was staring at me. 

The first thing thing, I noticed was the wings. Large and dark colored like a dragon's or a bat. Then I focused on the face. Her face was batlike through her eyes were huge. Blue. It contrasted against the very light brown fuzz of her face to give her a sweet quality. Then I noticed the fangs. needle-like exposed by a smile. I flicked my tongues out and she gurgled at me.

"Are you one of the changed, too?"

She tilted her head and stared at me. She had to be. No one was this dumb unless they were one of us. "I'm Boomer." We held up a foreleg. She glanced at it and smiled at me bigger. I lowered my leg. "Do you have a name?"

She nodded. 

"What is it?" 

She smiled then squatted down. Her head was lowered as she wrote down in large letters,"Pixie."

"Your name is Pixie?" She stood up and nodded. "Can you talk?" She shook her head and opened her mouth wide enough for me to see the stump left of her tongue. "Oh." We bumped against her leg as one. It was safer to be one when the places were strange. "I'm sorry."

She hummed and we smiled. Well, aside from two, who grunted, but for her it was the same thing.

"Do you have a pride?"

She looked at me suddenly with wide fearful eyes and shook her head sharply from side to side.

"Do you have a flock?"

She nodded and pulled her wing back to reveal a hand with three fingers held up.

"You have three flocks?"

She shook her head though she seemed amused.

"Three flock mates?"

She nodded this time.

"Do you have a nest?"

She shook her head.

"A house?"

She nodded.

"Can you take me there? I don't know this place."

She nodded, grabbed us around the middle and took off with three flaps of her wings. The trees passed by underneath us as we slowly gain in height before she dropped back down at the base of a large hollowed out tree. Forest Clan style though the numerous opening in the sides were of Siren origins. A red painted door was in front of us and she pushed it open without setting me down.

Inside of the house was a mix of cultures that could only be volcanic. Along the right wall was a small area with a handrail about waist height and another one above that at Papa's height. A boy about my age was attached to the high one with batlike feet and wings curled around him. Though I could smell he was male. On the wall across from it, a fire was roaring under a pot of stew. On the table, between the two points, bread slices were arranged around a fruit statue. The chairs were of the moving kind I loved. Though these didn't have a pillow on them that I could lay across like the others did.

Number Four and Six turned towards the sound of a door opening. A Siren male about Papa's age was standing behind a young female bat-griff with red hair stared straight at us. "Who is this, Pix?" 

A clattering came and I saw through Two and Three as Pixie picked up a slate from the table then picked up the fallen plate and chalk. She scribbled something on it then turned it around. In large letters she had written, "Friend. Bomer." My own eyes were turned towards the Old Male as I watched the young female walk forward.

"Boomer."

"Wonderful. Another one. " This one was lighter than the other. Like she hadn't eaten as much as they had. Her fur was lighter than her hair, more of a leather clothing color than the dark red, and her face was more Kanji than bat. She had a long curling tail that reminded me of a snake that ended with a flat leaf like mane. Was mane the right word for tails? Me and Six tried to remember while Two and Three were talking about how cool the girl looked. Four was snapping at them for not thinking properly. Five and Six were looking at Pixie and the still sleeping boy.

"Hex, be nice to our guest." All of our ears pricked at the male's accent. I had never heard any like it and I had been to a lot of places. "Forgive her. It has been a poor day for our hunting."

My tail twitched as Two moved closer to him. He was a brown color with sharp features and a scar marking part of his face. It looked like someone had taken a beak across his face. "No problem. Where am I?'

"The badlands." Hex said as she walked towards the pole and the boy. Her wings looked larger from here. They were almost black.

"The what?" All of us turned back together. Two and Four nuzzled then turned away from each other.

"The badlands. Chaos island. Magic Hotpot. Take your pick. It's been called all of it and more unsuited for children's ears." Number Three took note of the fact he said children and not hatchlings which apparently meant he had grown up around other races. She was almost hissing her pride.

I moved closer into the room as a chill went through me suddenly. Something played in the back of my mind that I tried to reach, but every time I almost got it, it slipped farther away. Finally, I let it go. "Oh. Papa's from here."

"And who would your Papa be?" I looked at the male. He seemed nice enough, but so had the skin traders in the mountains.

"Steadfast of the Mountain Tribes." Griffin speak Papa says to saywhen I didn't know the person. Through what mountain tribe meant he never said.

"Can't say I have met him. Though strange things are happening around here." He swished his head and ruffled up his feathers. "A hydra born of a griffin is strange indeed."

My ears pricked. "You have seen other hydras like me."

His wings raised in what I assumed to be shrugs. "One or two. I haven't lived here long."

I turned my eyes towards Pixie as I heard a scratching sound. "Found us. Settled then." I nodded.

"Okay."

"Year."

"She doesn't need our whole life story," Hex said with a hiss.

"Don't know."

"She also didn't need to know that."

Pixie scribbled down a face with the tongue out. Hex hissed at her.

"Girls settle down." Hex rolled her eyes and huffed while Pixie nodded. "Dinner will be done shortly. Do you want to stay?"

We all nodded. "Yes."

He grabbed the ladle in his beak and stirred the pot slowly. He pulled it out then grabbed a bowl near him in his talon. He spooned in some of the stew. Pixie grabbed it from him and walked over to the table. Hex poked the boy several times before he unfolded his wings. His fur and hair was a white color and his wings were lighter than Pixie's. He seemed to be between Hex and Pixie in how much he looked like a bat. His nose looked like it had been broken and set many times then remade by an amatur potter. He had a ruff of slightly darker fur around his throat, but he was over all Kanji in appearance. He flopped back down to the ground and walked to the stew pot where he was handed a bowl. Finally, He handed Hex a bowl. Then he set the ladle down. "Do you all eat out of one bowl or is it one bowl per head."

"Papa makes all of us one bowl. He says it all goes to the same place anyway?"

"How do you know." I turned to Hex. She was rapidly spooning the soup down.

"Papa took us to a healer and he said so, too," Number four said as I turned back to the male. He handed me a bowl and Number Six snapped it up into her mouth before I could. Thankfully, she made it back to the table before she wolfed it down by herself which would have been really mean. Thankfully, someone had put a pillow on the chair swing. It was a tight fit though and my tail dragged against the ground.

"Well, that is something. The healers round here haven't had much luck with them." The male sat down at the only open seat.

"That's because they are racist idiots who think that the change will affect them too if they stay too close to us," Hex said with a sharp sounding hiss at the end of her statement. The young male nodded and Pixie gave a short hum of agreement. At least, that is what I assumed it was. As Hex was smiling at her. My tongue flicked out as Number Six and Four both tried to drink up the broth still in the quickly emptying bowl.

"Yes, they are. Do you want seconds?"

Hex got up from her chair. "I'll get it myself."

"Okay." The male snapped up some bit of meat from his bowl into his beak. A pang went through me as I remember Papa did that. My tail swung behind me as I turned my eyes to the now empty bowl. My stomach felt kind of sloshy though my muzzle felt kind of dry. Pixie looked at me then seemed to make a gesture at Hex who huffed and handed Pixie a cup of red juice. Number Two's tongue flicked out. 'Pomegranate Juice', she told us, 'I think.' Pixie slid the glass across the table and I managed to catch it with my tail before it slid off. I looked down at the cup then took a gulp from it. Number Three pushed me away and took a mouthful from it as well. Before long, all of us had taken a drink and my stomach was full to almost painful levels. It felt nice. Especially since I spent many days without a full stomach on hunts with Papa. The young male took the bowl and cup from me and took them towards the fire. He set them down then turned back to me.

"If you're sleepy, I can take down some of the winter blankets."

"How do you use blankets," Number Four said. 

Number Two hissed at her sharply. "You can't just ask someone how they use blankets."

The young male thankfully laughed. "We tie them around the stick and wiggle into it like a snake's skin."

"Don't snakes wiggle out of their skin, not into it?"

He smiled. "Not around here they don't. This is the magic lands." His tail swished. If that was what it was. It looked like someone had put a wire around him and covered it with a very fine layer of fuzz aside from the end which was marked with a dark spade shape. Though it was also small. Everything about the male seemed small over all. Not in the way, Pixie was though. On her it looked delicate and cute, but on the male, it looked like he would be crushed by a hug. With that thought, I decided I was going to protect him while I was here.

"So what's your name?"

"Pixel."

"Pixel?"

He nodded then seemed to think deeply about something before he shrugged. "It's the name I remember."

"Oh." My mind went back to the sharp slap of rock against stone, the snarls, and hot breath at my back. Then I was back there with a pain in my head that refused to go away and no idea about why it was there.

"Though Hex remembers better than I do, but she doesn't like to talk about it." Hex hissed at him as she moved towards the sleeping sticks in the walls. She climbed up to the second one and hooked her claws around it, furled her wings around her, and seemed to sleep. Pixie did the same next to her though she seemed to go to sleep instantly as soft snores soon echoed around the room. My head suddenly felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and it widened out my mouth into a yawn. "Can you unlock your jaw like snakes do?"

I blinked. "I think so. I haven't though, so I don't know. You sleep upside down?"

"Yes. Instinct is what Blue thinks though I do-" He whimpered and held his head. I was nuzzling against his hand before I even knew I was walking. "Do you get them too. The flashs then-"

"The pain and darkness you can't reach into?" He nodded and a slow smile ran across his face.

"You look like you could use a nap." I turned to see the older man looking at us. "Pixel why do you get the winter blankets. And this time shake them out before you use them." Pixel smiled at him and walked off. He came back a minute later with three large blankets in multiple colors. Though most were shades of red mostly. He laid them down. I walked over to it and took many minutes of pushing, prodding, and rolling before I had a nest I was comfortable with. We bunched together and I feel sleep fast though Number four was still holding onto a tiny sliver of consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Continuing from last chapter, tell me something you feel could be improved in the story.


	4. Chapter 4

I pushed the door open and walked inside. My ears flicked slowly from side to side as I looked around the room. Damian was waiting for me on my bed with a book in his talons. "Hey, cuz."

"Cuz? What happened to you while I was gone?"

Damian set down the book and regarded me with a deeply sarcastic expression. "Nothing much. My dear friend has come down with a bad case of the squirts-"

"Was that supposed to be a bird pun?"

"Of course not." Damian snorted.

"Okay, if you so say."

"That's not how you say that."

"I said it, so that is how I said it." I stuck my tongue.

"You are annoying."

"You're annoyinger."

"That's not a word."

"Of course, it is."

"No, it isn't."

"Fine, it isn't." I shrugged.

"Of course- Wait, did you just give up an arguement?" Damian got off the bed with a harsh flap of his wings and settled down infront of me. He looked at me for several minutes as I tried to not let how much it annoyed me. "Who are you and what have you done with my cousin?"

"I have consumed her soul and am now living quite happily in her lower intestines. Why?" I blinked up at him with a hopefully neutral expression.

Damian back up. "Don't joke about that. Remember what happened to Randy."

"Stop making up family members."

"I never make them up. It all happened. You were just too young to remember them. But I do. I do." Damian looked at me with a completely serious expression for several seconds before we disolved into giggle. The day catching up to caused my laughter to go on much longer than his, so he just stared at me with an expression that caused my laughter to last even longer. "Did you hit your head?" His tail flicked and he stared at me with a prim expression. I gasped in a few breaths of air as I finally settled down.

"No. Just a long couple of months."

Damian nodded. "Tell me about it. I got cornered in Petopia because they assumed I was a thief. Though to their credit, I did look a lot like them." He snorted. "Then the sellers mixed up rose quality ink with opal quality ink, don't ask me, I have no idea what the differences, so Red Ruby can't write on our memoirs. Sweet girl, but naive."

I smiled. "I defeated a god, went into the innersanctum of the Rouge temple, and Jinx has decided to take up the family tradition by adopting a shapeshifting snake. At least, I think she is a snake. That seems to be the form she takes often enough."

Damian blinked. "You win."

I bared my teeth at him then grinned. "Of course, I do. I'm awesome. Everyone knows that." Damain leaned forward and rubbed his head against me. I rubbled out a purr as I nuzzled back.

"So I heard from Ditzy that you were lunching with the newly returned princess. Want to tell me what's happening there."

"Who's Ditsy?"

"The guard in blue. She was apparently assigned to-" His nose scrunked up suddenly-"What should I call her? The princess has nearly always been Kalima and it would be strange to change that now. Though calling her by her name just seems wrong as well."

"I call her Sera or Seraphine. She kind of insists on it."

"Okay. And you didn't answer the question."

"Because there is not much to answer. She asked out someone, they turned her down, she seemed down about it, so I invited her to get food with me. Though she is insisted on calling it a date."

Damian blinked. "Wait, it was a real date?"

"That is what she told me."

"Like a really, really real date?"

"Yes. Now please stop talking about it. Unless you want me to tell Rune Stone you like her."

"You wouldn't do that. And I need to call mom and tell her I won the bet."

"What bet?"

Damian headed towards the door. "Bye. I'll tell Mom you said hi." He shut the door behind him and I growled softly before turning to my room. It was small. A bed to the left of the room that was currently unmade thanks to Damian, a chest at the end of the bed, a bedside table, and finally, a book shelf on the opposite wall. It was a lot better than the suite they had tried to give me, but I haggled my way down to this. I moved across the floor to the side of the bed. I shifted the covers and pillows around until it was back to the condition it was in when I left this morning.

I turned to the chest. With a few pushs and pull, half having to be done with magic to make sure the chest wouldn't stick, it finally swung open. Mine and Jinx's clothing layed in neat rows. Though it was easy to tell our clothing appart. Jinx's taste ran towards femine and kittish in usually light colors though mostly green. My clothing was darker with most being either made by Lala for formal situations, armor, or uniforms.

I started packing Jinx's first before I moved on to mine. Though I took the time to summon a clothing basket before I did so. When I was finished with the clothing, I moved on the the few other things we didn't keep in the out or at home. I stood up and set the basket next to the bed for easy access. I looked at the bed before I decided to take a bath. I moved a few things out of the basket and grabbed one of my uniforms before putting everything else back inside the basket. I turned towards the door. I used my magic to push it open and drop the basket into the out. No one should come in here aside from Jinx and me, but I couldn't take that risk.

I walked out of the room and down the hall, following the glowing instructions on the walls until I reached the bathing room or the water room as the sign proudly stated next to it. Strange name. I pushed the door open slowly and walked inside. The room was large, vaulted ceiling, crystal collums and at least twelve seprate ponds to bathe in. A griffin male was standing with his back to me in front of the closest pond. His pelt was a dark brown, his mane was black and his wings were black aswell. Then something moved. My eyes glanced towards it. A stinger twice as tall as my arm was, maybe shorter. I was never very good at judging distences. That was probably why I felt out of a lot of trees when I was younger.

"Who are you?" My mind went through all of the books I had read about the multiverse, but my mind was drawing a blank at the species name. He turned to me. His blue garments stopped around his midsection. His facial features were old looking, looking like the paintings of the Sekhmet era Kanjis, but he couldn't have been much older then Aunt Vera. Possibly, Uncle Frey. At least he was between the two in age. Three scars ran across his nose.

"Stead Fast, navigator extordinare." He walked towards me with an unnatural grace. "And who are you?"

"Adelita of Pride Domina, c-"

"Damian's cousin, right?"

I blinked at him as I swallowed down my annoyence. "Yes, Dare is my cousin."

"You aren't what I was expecting."

"You thought I was a griffiness?" My tail flicked as I tried to remember if that was the correct term. It was the term that Corrie used, but she was strange in many, many ways. Cute though she was.

"Actually, yes. Though my kitten is a hydra so I have no place to judge. At least in families. Everything else is fair game."

"A hydra?" My mind played a troubling image as I tried to figure out how that would actually work.

"Not how your thinking. I was granted guardianship after a misunderstanding." He shifted his stance. "In fact, she is why I am here at the moment. Have you seen her?" He held up of his paws about up to my knees. "About this big, green, six heads."

I shook my head. "No."

He sighed. "Well, that is a shame. I will leave you to your bath then." He moved around me and out the door, closing it with a solid thump. I turned to the baths. I looked out on each one and moved the closest. I set my cloths next to it, shedded my clothing, laying my underarmor ontop of my fresh cloths, and slipped into the bath. I bathed all of the sand and dust out of my fur before I finished it. I pulled a towel out of the cubby holes next to the door and spent a reasonable amount of time drying out my innerfur. I wouldn't do to get moldy in there. Though that was extremely unlikely. After my fur was reasonably dry, I picked up a brush on a stick to scratch at a new itch on my back. I hope it wasn't a tick or something like that. I was allergic to the little Void-Sworn insects.

I shook out my underarmor, watching as the crystal glow reflected back on the multicolored sections of scales. Three shakes later, I put it back on along with the red tunic. I placed the backscrather where I found it, placed the towels I used into the basket next to the towels, and finally, gathered up my old clothes. I placed them neatly into the void and went on my way back to the room.

~Tiamat~

My claws struck against the stone of floor as I walked through the many room of the art muesum. I swifted my wings slowly and fluffed out my feathers. Several of the others looked at me as I walked by. Though I couldn't see any reason as to why. My form was flawless though it had been guite a while since I had actually seen a griffin, so maybe I had gotten it wrong. No, I was just gorgeus that is why they were staring. 

My eyes turned towards a flash of white encased in an orange winged shell. Kitsune, my mind said, as I turned my head to look fully at him. No, her. Young, too. Can't even be past her first century. I walked towards her as the shell around her crumbles. "Hello, little darling." I put a thrill in the last word as Kalima's queen had. The girl turned to me with a weary look playing across her face to be replaced by shock.

"Do I know you, miss?" Her face had quickly turned to disinterest, but I could see her glance around nervously.

"No, but I know you. Daughter of Ala." Mother Goddess of Kitsunes, Storyspeaker, and fantasic in bed though I hadn't got with her since I found my mate.

Her eyes widen and now she stared at me with a panicked look. "What do you want?"

"A quick chat. It is nice to see somethings haven't changed."

She pulled her tails around her slowly. Two of them. She was very young then. Not over fifty. Poor dear. "Who are you?"

"Tiamat, Mother of Monsters and outcasts." Though that was only one of my titles, that was the one I liked best. "Who are you?"

"Bindi, Scholar. Mostly." She smiled. Her parents must be very proud of her. Kitsunes valued history more than any other sprecies I had meet. And that was saying a lot since Kappas would tell epic tales for cucumbers. In the old world. I hadn't even seen one since I came here. Though the fact, that we were in a desert could have helped that fact.

"So you are with Delta's cousin's team?"

Her nose wrinkled. "Who? Oh, yeah, Damian's cousin." Her tails dropped and swished. "How did you see?" She waved a hand over herself with an almost grimace. "You know, me."

"Simple, I am old. Older than two worlds now. Maybe, three some day." My tail swished, my wings fluttered out then back again. A strange feeling filled my chest now. It was one I hadn't felt in forever. I forgot the name of it, but I feel it yet. Maybe, I need to poop.

"Okay, ma'am."

"Tia."

She pointed at herself. "Bindi."

"I know."

"I know you know." Her tails swished.

"So what is your magic? Wind, water, cold?" My mind tried to remember the other ones, but I just couldn't. My mind must have went in that dark hole.

She twitched as she played with the end of her black dress. Looked like it was soft. I wonder if I should start wearing clothing and not just making something up when I need it. Maybe I should ask Doe to go shopping or the Sera girl.

"Wind. I already mastered it." She raised the tails she had with a happy smile.

"That is nice. What are you working towards next?" Her nose wrinkled up again. My tail flicked back and forth. It was strange to have something coming out of my hind area. Probably came from spending so much time in one form. I can't see how mortals did it. Or my mate for that matter. He never changed forms, said it made him feel secure. Must be an order god thing. I loved him, but I never could understand it.

"I don't know. It hasn't been that long since I got my first one and I have been busy. I have traveled the world and seen things that no one else has." She smiled at me. "Well, aside from my friends, of course."

"That sound nice. I have not seen much of this land. But it is fun to explore." I smiled at her in what I hoped was a reassuring way. It felt wrong not to have fangs when I did so. Maybe, I should do as Kalima has decided to do and see one of the Thoughtspeakers. I want to go back to who I used to be as soon as possible. Even sooner if I could.

"Yes, it is."

Small wings flapped behind me and a small red tree dragon landed right beside the girl. "Bindi, we should be heading back to the hotel now. Stead Fast needs us." The girl nodded then turned to me with a smile.

"Well it has been fun talking to you, Miss Tia."

"And you, too, Darling." I turned and walked away. It was nice to talk to someone else, but now I needed to focus on my mission. I had been smelling Crystal Fruit Flowers since I got into here, so I needed to find out where it is coming from. Those things are an abonation on my earth and I shall not let them pollute it anymore. Filthy, nasty, disgusting- I shook my head, no more thesearus moments. I need to concentrate. Focas. What did I just say? I shook my head again. A couple with a kit glanced my way with twin snotty expression. Idiots. "Don't ya worry. I just got allergies. Furbrains." I said the last part so they couldn't hear. The kit was staring at me, so I waved at her. She seemed to have some manners despite her upbringing as she waved back. I reached the end of the museum. Nothing felt like it was hiding it, so I left.

I tracked the traces of it and the smell through the city. A couple of times, I couple people yelled at me for some insane reason or another that I paid no mind to. They would thank me when they didn't become food for a tree. Finally, the traces grew stronger. But as I reached the end of the city, it ended. The tree wasn't here then. But someone who knew about the tree was here. They had left though. I pushed my magic out of me. A mass of energy a couple feet away from me in bright greens and pinks. It felt like one of my dear children, Erika. If anyone would have saved one of the seeds it would be her. She must have thought that she was doing the right thing, but this species must die out for the good of our people. I pushed my magic out and pulled the portal open then I stepped through it. It swirled around me in every color of the rainbow around me before I stepped out of it into a forest clearing.

Two unicorns, one white and the other black, stared at me from the waterfall to the side. Around the edge of the clearing was roses in every color imaginable. Three small fays danced among the blooms, chittering around. An ancient tree was being used as a house. How quiant.

The door opened slowly as Erika walked out. Her hair bound up under a strawhat with a pink riddon, a poofy white dress tied with a pink riddon at her waist, and a basket in her arm with a pair of attatched blades inside."Hello, Mother." She didn't look at me as I walked up to her. I shifted myself as I stopped infront of her. In a second, I was staring down at her from my true form.

"Hello, Erika."

"It has been quite a while since I saw you." That was an understatement for the millinum.

"Yes." 

Her ear flicked as she turned to me. "Did you finally reform? I thought you would have done that years ago." Her tone was gentle, but I could see something in her eyes. A pain, I didn't exprect.

"No. I didn't." My mind went back to the cold, the dark, the burn of my flesh as I tried to escape, the hunger, and the hissing. The ache of lonelyness.

"Ah, well, you didn't. Wonderful. Where were you then? Because we searched night and day. We found Father. Nearly gone, but he is-"

"Finris is alive?" A warmth spread through me slowly. "He is alive."

She looked at me. "You didn't know? How didn't you know?"

"Nocturna managed to-" my words scattered then and I had a hard time tracking them down- "get the upper hand while Fin was enaged with Sekhmet-"The scene was clear in my head from the screams of rage and terror from both Fin and Sekhmet to the tange of blood from wounds-"she grabbed me. Did something and we were somewhere else. She laughed as she flew out of it. In that cursed garb of hers now. Time seemed to stop. I tried and tried to escape. Again and again. I - I can still remember the scent of burning flesh and the pain rippled across my skin. I couldn't change anymore." Erika was beside me now. A deep rumbling coming from her. Bit by bit, I calmed down throgh I managed to keep the tears inside. A goddess shouldn't cry even in front of their child.

"Okay. It's going to be okay." Erika kept repeating it over and over again.

"What is the m-" We turned to see Bastet standing in the enterence way of the clearing. She looked from Erika to me then she backed away out the clearing. We turned to each other and burst out in laughter. It wasn't that funny, but my nerves were shot through. Slowly, we calmed down.

"Sorry about that. She has been highsprung lately. I think she might be expecting a stork soon, but I could be wrong." Her tail twisted around me tightly.

"I couldn't tell."

Erika snorted. "Yeah, I bet. Now, what brings you here?" Her eyes widened. "Splats, I forgot to make cookies."

"Cookies?"

"You make cookies for guests." She nodded sharply then turned around to leave.

"You get that from your father," I said that in a yowl.

"I know." She hissed softly as she shut the door. I waited there letting the sun warm my scales and the babbling of the waterfall and the fay lure me into a half-sleep that was easily broken by the door opening and closing. I side into a reclining position as I watched Erika move towards me holding a large plater with a silver pitcher and several types of cookies and small pie things. I flicked my tongue out slowly. She smiled at me and stopped a couple feet away. The air rippled between us, the magic spiked sharply, and a silver table appeared. Erika set down the platter and looked at me. "Do you want some?" She pulled out a silver chair that matched the table and sat down. I snapped up one of the pie things and watched as Erika took a cookie.

"So what has happened while I was imprisioned?"

"Well, Freya had kids. Lots of them." Erika smiled and looked around. She tapped the table twice and two cups appeared.

"How many is alot?"

"Thirteen." She wrinkled her nose. "I just can't see how a woman can go through that much pain thirteen times." She stopped and thought slowly. "Wait, no. A couple of them were twins."

"So I have grandchildren?"

She nodded. "Yep. Freya's thirteen, Bastet's two, and Lupa's one." Erika poured the contents of the pitcher into the two glasses as she spoke. "Sixteen. If my math is correct."

"How could you not know how many nieces and neiphews you have?"

She shrugged. "It's been a while since a few of them came to vistit. Oh, and two great grandchildren. Ragnar and Eliza had a few."

"So who is Freya's mate?"

"Huh? Oh, it's Set. And Bastet's mate is Sol if you were wondering." She took a gulp of the liquid then set it down. "And I do have a few stories. If you want to hear them?" I nodded. "Well, there was Freya and Set's wedding. It was hilarous." She went off on a long chat about what I had missed and soon, it was sunrise.

~Kalima~

My eyes scanned every book in the library twice, but I couldn't remember what a single one was. I had always found comfort in books. Mimi said it was because of an unresolved issue with change, but I didn't see it. That's proably why she was the therapist and I wasn't. My ear flicked as I heard the door open behind me and the padded pawsteps coming towards me. I turned my head and nodded soundlessly to one of the gem plated guards. "Your highness, you have been in here quite a while. Has something caused you some distress?" She seemed to be choosing her words carefully from the small pause between some of the words.

"No. I was just about to leave anyway." I turned and the guard moved to follow me.

"That is good. This isn't even the best library. The second floor one is, though if the Sun Dragon Priestess asks, you didn't hear it from me." She smiled like Sera did, too much teeth shown. "I'm Sunshine Takane. You can call me Takane."

"I'm-"

"The princess, I know. Nearly everyone here know who you are." Her tail flickered. It did it again. She meet my eyes with a nervous smile. "It happens sometimes."

Yeah. These things just happen around here. I tossed that thought away as I looked at her. I was too tired to deal with anything right now. "Okay."

"Do you need help getting back to your quarters?" I shook my head and walked out of the library. I managed to make it back to my room after getting lost only twice. My travel basket was waiting on my bed with the Queen Diana book I was currently reading. I opened the book to see a small piece of paper wedged between the two pages. I unfolded the piece of paper.

In regal script it was written:

Princess,

My name is Ink Drop and I have something to discuss with you. If you choose to hear it, I will meet you at High Rock in two days time.

P.S. Tell no one if you decide to come.

I refolded up the partment and set it back inside of the book. My mind thought over the strange letter as I set aside my travel basket then layed down in my bed. Everything whirled together until I couldn't tell which was which anymore. I sighed and settled onto my stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is on the short side and for those that might have been confused, due to changing lingistic, Erika became Erica. During Tiamat's point of view, I tried to give you a glimpse back into the old world, so the word choices are a little different.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is now, a tvtropes page for Sekhmet: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/Sekhmet

I woke up slowly. My neck was cramping, my back ached, and I was covered in sweat. Stupid desert climate. First, I need a bath then I'm going to get some breakfast. I looked around the room as my mind caught up with me. A bath. A bath meant water. A shudder went through me as memories flashed before my eyes. I heard a soft click. "Kalima, are you feeling okay?" I turned towards Caterina. She was looking at me with a sharp expression.

I stood up and shook myself. A small cloud of sand billowed off of me. "I'm alright."

"Really? Because the dust bowl you caused says otherwise." She snorted. "At least, the sand comes off of you. It causes my fur to clump together." An image of Caterina with her fur sticking out in spikes filtered through my head and caused me a short laugh. "It's only funny, because it doesn't happen to you."

"I would assume it would be." I shook myself again. This time, no sand billowed off.

"Yes, that is what I said."

"Are you feeling okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I'm just going through caffeine withdrawals. They apparently only have dairy creamer, so I can't drink it, but I need coffee and I hate black coffee."

"That was a run on sentence."

She nodded. "Yep. It's a symptom of withdrawal. Now, are you going to get ready for early breakfast or not? Because I am not packing food. It will attract wendigos. Are those real?" She snorted. "They might be, so I'm not taking any chances." She turned to the door and left. "I need to wake up Aleksandr now."

"Okay." I went over to my travel basket and opened it up. I picked up my blue dress and leggings. "I wonder who made these?" I looked at the leggings as I pondered over this mystery before I set aside that thought and got dressed quickly. When I was finished, I brushed and put up my hair then gave my face fur a few strokes of the brush. I set the brush into the basket then set it on the bed then I put in the Queen Diana book then put in the brush. I closed and tied the basket. I set it on the bed then looked around my room for Sora. She had been spending more and more time with Kottr of late. Mimi said it was part of my abandonment issues, I was pushing her away, but it had to be at least partially Sora's fault, too. She was making her own decision. Even if the dragon training book said, I should be able to hear her in my mind now, I could only get echoes of strong emotions that she felt.

This is getting depressing for me. I looked around the room. There was a vase with a single crystal rose blooming in it, there was a small scratch in the wall that almost looked like a sculpting tool, there was unraveling in the top part of my blanket - I turned around - the window pane was small enough to fit Keira through, but not me, and a small potted cactus rested in the window. I closed my eyes. The silence grew for a minute until I opened them again. There went the hearing exercise. Time for feeling. My tail wrapped itself around my leg brushing against my skirt. A sharp knocking came from the door.

It opened. I turned around. "Okay, so Delta won't allow us to eat until you are there, so are you coming or am I eating a waiter? Because I have been eyeing one of them."

"Why a waiter?"

"Lyra would never forgive me for eating another woman." Caterina smiled at me. I looked at her blankly. "It was supposed to be a- you know, what? Forget it. Come on." She walked forward and took my hand. This point of contact seemed to anchor me down. Though my mind continued to race, it had slowed down enough to be almost normal. My tail twitched as I followed after her. She led me down the hall quickly. A couple false leads down the way and we were finally in the dining room. This time, it was just us. A few servants and guards milled around the edges of the room. Most of the guards were wearing crystal armor that made them appear as if they were part of the wall. 

Caterina let go of my hand and went to sit next to Lyra. I sat down between Kieran and Delta. Breakfast was quiet and Fay's absence weighed down on me as I ate my way through my plate. Afterwards Delta gave us thirty minutes to pack up and meet in the new meeting room in sanctuary. I went back to my room and grabbed my bag in time to go to the meeting hall with Keira and Nix. Destiny had yet to get up according to them, so she would meet up with us later.

I took out another one of my Queen Diana books and read through a couple of chapters while we waited. Delta started getting annoyed when thirty minutes had apparently past and not everyone was here. That didn't help my concentration much, but I managed to ignore most of it. When Destiny and Aleksandr walked into the room, Delta called a meeting to order. Kieran looked grumpy at it, but I honestly didn't care much about who called the meetings, so I decided to stay out of it.

"Okay, I thought it over last night and came to an idea. We will take shifts on each quest when we can. Every couple of days, we meet back here to discuss our progress and switch out. That way, we make sure that each party has the skills they need to succeed." She smiled and taped the table. Not sure as to why though.

"Why would we interrupt searching to come back here?"

"I would be nice to sleep in a bed rather than on the ground," Aleksandr said. Kieran glared at him and he ducked down in his seat. "Never mind."

"It would be nice," Caterina said. She was smiling at Lyra in a way I didn't understand. Lyra snorted and smiled back at her.

"Can you not do that here?"

"We could or you could leave," Lyra said to her brother.

"Ugh. You are annoying and you stole my toothbrush."

"That was Vanessa." 

"No, it wasn't. It went missing this morning." He snorted.

"Oh, then it was my fault. I thought it was mine. Well, I just grabbed the orange ones," Caterina said with a wave of her hand.

"I told you it wasn't me." Lyra looked smugly at Aleksandr who huffed and leaned back in his chair with a scowl. "I told you."

"I got it. I got it."

"Okay, is everyone ready? Bags packed, groups chosen?" Delta's ear was twitching slightly as she spoke.

"Actually, I was thinking I should take the first shift with Kieran and Ayala." I turned away quickly as Delta turned to look at me with an annoyed look. "I know more of the people there and it would look suspicious if we didn't know it."

"That is true. Okay, you can go. Which group were you in?"

"I don't remember."

Delta shrugged. "Well, lets go." She held up a piece of paper. "Aleksandr, Nix, Des, Sera, and me are a team. Keira, Caterina, Lyra, Jinx, and Doe are the other team. Sofia is staying with Fay. Does anyone have any reason that this would work?" I looked around. Everyone shrugged mostly. "Alright," Destiny said with a sigh. "Time to go then." She pushed back her chair slowly and stood up. "Come on. The quicker we leave, the quicker we get this done." She looked around. "How are we going to leave? Someone is going to notice that we aren't leaving together."

"I figured that we would leave at the same time and split up a few hours from the city. Kieran will cast an illusion of the rest of us when we do so. Team Alpha will go with me to the swamplands, Team Sunspot will-" She stopped talking- "Freak. We don't have any leads about where to go. Let's see. Where would I go to cause eternal night?" She stayed silent for a minute. "The Hyena islands."

"Why would anyone go there," Lyra said.

"Because that is where I would go." Delta shrugged.

"Why would you go there?"

"Because no one would expect it and they were probably already sent there, so they will have sources there."

"Why would they have already been there?"

"Someone doesn't become a world threatening terror overnight. They would have a record hence going to the hyena islands. Even if they haven't, someone is bound to know something."

"Why don't we just ask Mother for leads? She might have seen something," Seraphine said. Delta turned to her.

"That would make sense. Okay, ask your mother for leads."

"I thought I was on your team." 

Delta sighed and rolled her eyes. "You are. Someone call her, please."

"Fine," Seraphine stood up with a huff and left the room. I picked back up my book and read over a couple pages before she came back inside the room. I closed the book and watched her walk back over to us. "Mother said that she hasn't seen anything, but she has been busy."

"Okay. So no leads still. Freya hasn't seen anything, so that means they have some way of blocking her out." Delta's face lit up then fell. She shuddered.

"How do you know that they just got lucky," Aleksandr said with a shrug.

"That would be too much of a coincidence. The Rogues must have something to do with this then." She shuddered then spat off several words in ancient volcanic that could only be curses by the way she said them.

"Well, that was colorful." Kieran had kept a straight face during all of it. "Now, why do you think it is the Rogues? Other than your own paranoia?"

Delta snapped her teeth together. "How do you think they managed to survive so long? They got some sort of magic that blocks out farsight." She snorted harshly. "Which you would know of you had spent more time actually talking to people then walking around with your head up your ar-"

"Delta, be nice," I said in a pleading voice. If it came down to it, I would back up Delta, but I would have to betray someone and that would destroy me.

"Fine. We need to be heading out soon or the sun is going to blind us by the time we reach our journey's end." She waved at Destiny who had sat down sometime before. Destiny stood up and looked around. "Is everyone ready?" Most of us offered some form of consent and so we left. We meet up with Eon and Diana near the city tunnel entrance. Sora and Kottr were playing in the rocks above them. Two other dragons were lounging around them. One was white as a shade and the other was a reddish gold without horns though close to Eon in size. As we watched three more dragons came out, a young female green with small wings horns, a small blue male, and a bronze with horn buds tipped in gold. Eon introduced them as Yuki, Venus, Dewdrop, Light Bright, and Golden. Each gave a bow as he introduced them.

"Where's Nya?"

Eon shrugged. 'She went off for a hunt last night and we haven't heard from her yet. We kind of assumed that she got caught up with something.' He waved one of his forelegs in a dismissive gesture. 'You know how it is.'

'Though it is unlike her,' Diana said.

'You are right. Though she might have gotten lost. Everything looks the same out here,' Kottr said as Sora managed to pin him against the ground. He nipped her leg and she lifted it enough for him to get out.

'We can always look for her on the way,' Diana said with a thump of her tail. 'It isn't like she needs us to constantly look out for her and this sun has been quite nice out here.' She leaned forward slightly and wiggled her hindquarters. Eon stared at her as she did so. I looked away quickly as I felt my fur heat up in embarrassment.

"So that is what you have been up to," I said.

'We are reptiles, even if we are warm-blooded," Yuki said with a toss of her snow white head.

"Reptiles aren't warm blooded," Jinx said with her usual smile. "It is one of the defining characteristics. At least according to the book. Which is why dragons belong to their own genus." She stopped talking for a second. "Or was it family?"

"Either one Jinx," Nix said. "None of the rest of us actually know."

"That's okay. No one can be absolutely perfect in every way." Her tail flicked as she looked around slowly. "I can't read that well."

"You can't read?" 

She shook her head. "Not well, Sissie tried to teach me, but they keep-" She made several gestures with her hand as she made noise related to each movement. "Doing all of that."

"That is quite strange." My nose twitched. A sneeze built until I had to release it.

"Bless you." Jinx's tail started twitching.

"We need to get going soon. The sun is going to rise before we get there," Delta said with a snort. "At least for some of us."

"Yeah. Come on." I looked over the dragons. Eon was looking at Diana. They were going to go crazy when we made them seperate. It was going to be horrible. Diana was going to get moody again. 

"Split up into groups for the dragons."

'Sofia isn't here yet. Shouldn't you wait for her,' Dewdrop said. Her green tail wagging as she looked at me. I was reminded of something I heard 'If one looks only at mirrors then they shall only see one thing.' I am not really sure what it means though. Probably one of the Petopian Ice Cream things that Allister was always complaining about when we were younger.

"No. She's staying here for a while. She got a cold." Delta waved her paw and looked around. "I call Eon."

'Call me what?' He gave a snort of laughter.

'Ha. Ha. You are hilarious,' Yuri said with a snort. 'Now, can we get going? Before we turn to stone.'

'That's gargoyles, darling,' Venus said in a strange accent that sounded Petopian, but wasn't. 'Not Dragons.' She looked at me then before she turned to Dewdrop with a chuckle. 'She needs to learn doesn't she?'

Yuri looked at her then with a strange eagerness in her eyes. Sora looked between them with a curious expression. 'Oh, do I?'

'Yes, you do.' Venus moved closer with a thrill in her voice.

'Weren't you the one that said we need to leave,' Diana said with a snort. 'Annoying love birds.'

"Really," Keira said. "You are saying that."

'Yes, I am. Why are you saying that?' Diana flared her wings out with a harsh snort.

"You know why." Keira moved forward slowly until she was standing next to Diana. Eon stared down at her with an amused expression.

"It's time to go," Delta said.

"You are starting to sound like a broken record," Kieran said with a snort. Seraphine made a series of gestures before a record with a missing piece appeared. She had smiled in her teeth-baring way that set me on edge everytime she did it. "Very funny."

"Thank you, I actually try. At least sometimes."

"That was sarcasm."

"Yeah. I know. I'm not stupid." Seraphine snapped her teeth together.

"Are you sure, you aren't?"

"Yes, I am."

"Serious. Am I the only one who cares about the schedule?" There were a few mumbled words of acceptance. "Fine." Delta crossed her arms and glared at each of us in turn. "Let's go."

"Which dragon is for who?"

Delta looked around. "Keira gets Diana, of course. I got Eon. The rest of you divide up the rest."

'The rest? Darlings, I must object.' Venus lifted up her front claw to her breast plate. 'I am much too fabulous to be considered as part of the rest.'

'Yeah, what she said,' Yuri said with a glare. 'Though I must say, it is offensive either way you slice this scat sandwich.' My nose wrinkled as my mind conjured up a picture of her eating such a sandwich. My stomach gave a loud gurgle. She turned to me. I smiled and shrank back into myself. I wasn't going to ride her anyhow. I moved towards Dewdrop who smiled at me with a sweet look in her eye.

"I'll ride Dewdrop."

"I'll go with you," Kieran said as he walked towards me.

"I'll ride Eon with Delta. It makes sense anyway," Seraphine said with a flamboyant shrug of her shoulders.

Delta sighed. "Okay. " She looked around. Everyone broke off into small groups and before long, we had all chosen our dragon. Caterina and Lyra took Venus. Keira and Nix rode on Diana. Jinx and Doe took Golden. Des rode with Aleksandr on Light Bright. Kieran and I rode on Dewdrop and Seraphine rode with Delta.

~Nya~

My head was throbbing and my wings were pulled in tightly against my sides. I moved into a more upright position then the belly dragging sleeping position I was currently in. I looked around the room slowly. Aside from the small mound of pillows and blankets I was on, the room was bare. Though the room was large enough to hold me, but had very little room left over. It was obvious that the room had been cleared for me. I looked towards the door. It was a good door, sturdy, but too small for me to get through. That made me wonder how I got into the room in the first place. I looked up. The ceiling looked solid enough that it couldn't have been moved to let me in. Strange place this was. 

The door opened and the room around me warped. The walls turned bluish white and the floor turned blue. Here and there along the wall was windows. The air in the room lowered at least ten degrees maybe more. Finally, I focused on the woman who walked in. Tall, white furred. A pointed muzzle that reminded me of a lupian's and pricked ears that looked somewhat between a kanji and a lupian's. What was most remarkable was the six tails she sported. They spilled out from behind her blue dress. I couldn't read her expression. "Hello, Madame Dragon. I am Rose Petals Rising through the Breeze." Icy Mountain name and colors though her accent didn't match.

"My name is Nya. Where am I?'

She smiled. "My summer home. Well, my all around home now. Considering what is happening around the block from her. But I ain't eaten any of that fruit. Not for all the riches of your ancestor's hoards."

There was a knock and a heavily pregnant woman walked in. She looked as if she had gotten beaten recently. There were a few half healed scrapes that proved that this wasn't uncommon. "Rosie Posie, I-'' She glanced around- "I am sorry. I didn't realize we had company. I'll go make some tea." The woman closed the door and I could hear pawsteps moving away.

"That was Rhea. Brave dear, but not very smart." The woman looked after her with a soft fawn smile then she turned back to me. "So you are a Volcanic Dragon?" I nodded. "Good. I thought so."

"Is that why you saved me?"

She laughed. "Of course not. You were in need of help, so I helped you. Road etiquette and all that my mama taught me."

"What are you?"

She cocked her head to the side. "I'm a kitsune, didn't you know?"

"No, I didn't. That's why I asked."

"Of course. I'll make this quick. You are a dragon." She looked at me, so I nodded. "We are trying to turn the Rogues against each other, but we don't have enough numbers. And even if we did, we need food. I am forced inside this house due to their anti-magics now and I can't even leave. We are starving."

"So you need me to hunt for you?"

She nodded. "Yes, we do. You are a large dragon and can, at least, bring enough to fill our bellies. Then we can work on a plan of action."

"So you want me to leave this room and fly out into Rogue territory?"

She laughed. "No. You can use the tunnels."

"Why can't you use the tunnels to hunt for yourself?" 

She blinked at me slowly. "Can't. They are protected-" She growled at that word-"by magic wards that prevent my kin and I from leaving. I am just glad that Ishie managed to get out with the cubs before it went up."

"How long has it been up?" My mind was working slowly now.

"Six months. They got bold during the Daymother's return, but back off when we showed them our claws." She extended them to show me them. They seemed long and sharp, but were nothing compared to mine. "So will you hunt for us, dear?"

"Where are the tunnels?" I sighed. She smiled and turned around.

"Please, follow me. They are in the basement." She walked out of the room and I followed out of the suddenly big enough door. I moved along the hallway of ice with her, off into a room painted in fire tones with a waterfall in it, then into a chef room, and finally down a surprisingly normal set of stairs to the basement. I stepped around a portion of the wall that extended out and into a surprisingly large room with a tunnel leading out blocked with a dark purple magic shield. I moved towards it and the shield buzzed with power sending out a few purple sparks that hit against my skales. They tickled. I moved through the shield as slowly as I could and finally, I was on the other side. I moved through the only tunnel. Which was strange. Any good escape hole would have multiple dead ends. 

I kept moving until finally I reached the end of the tunnel. It led out into a cliff. I sniffed deeply. The salt in the air was surprising, the house must be around the sea. I looked to my left. A small trail lead along the wall. It was barely wide enough for any on two legs to go along it. If I was being honest, it looked like a fox trail.

I leaned out of the tunnel and spread my wings out. Feeling the breeze for a minute before I jumped off. I turned my wings until I caught a fast moving upward breeze. Letting the wind determine where I was going at the moment, I looked around. Behind me was a forest of tall trees and a two story house in a pinkish purple color. I tilted my wings and moved towards the forest. I had never been good at fishing and I was better at land hunting. Below me, life flitted around. Small squirrels ran from tree to tree. Birds chirped and fought over land and mates. A few ducked away when they saw my shadow, but others sang louder as if in challenge. 

Along the way, I caught sight of a large crystal tree with large red blooms in it. I quickly left it along as something in me screamed go away now though I had no idea why. But I didn't have any reason not to trust it. Finally, after a couple hours worth of flight or at least it felt that way from the ache in my wings, I came across a band of deer. They were huge deer though. Enough to feed both me and Eon if he was here. I settled myself into a dive and landed on the back of one of them. The others scattered with loud bellows. I delivered a quick death blow to the back of its neck then took off into the air. I followed the air currents back to the house.

~Tiamat~

Thankfully, Erica had a second bed hidden away in her house, so I didn't have to sleep in a pet bed for the night. My reputation would never recover from that. Though it was only through legends and other such things that I still had a reputation. Probably, Sol and Bastet's efforts if I thought over it a bit. They were always such sweet children. A knock on the door broke me out of my thoughts before Erika walked in. "Why did you knock in your house?"

She stared at me. "So I didn't interrupt anything." She shrugged.

"What would you be interrupting?"

"Sleep. Shape changing. A good book." She smiled at me sweetly. Today, her clothing was a lot simpler. A white dress in Pheonis fashion with a large pink hair bow. "You never know with guest and that is one reason that Freya and Set have to stay with Bastet when they visit for the night."

"Do I want to know what happened?"

She shook her head. "No. I sure didn't."

"Okay." I looked around the room I was in as we fell into a silence I didn't know how to get out of.

"I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast with some tea if you want it?" I turned back to her. Her tail was twitching slowly.

I didn't like blueberries when I had them last, but that was centuries ago and it wouldn't do for me to not take a peace offering from my child after I hadn't seen her in many years.``That sounds lovely. Lead the way.''She led the way out of the room, past the door to the bathroom, and down the winding staircase to her living room. 

The living room had a low roof that opened up in a cylinder to allow the staircase to exist. Her furniture looked like it was made of wood and moss. From the couch to the rectangular magic mirror on the wall from the couch. 

She led me through an archway into a small kitchen. A table near the window was set with a white table cloth and two plates. She took the seat closest to the door. I took the seat across from her after I had taken a more Kanji like form than normal. Any chair made by a two legged person was made to be used by two legged people like them. Erika blinked at me slowly with an almost embarrassed look. I looked down at myself before I realised I had forgotten that this form needed clothing. Normally, my first choice of clothing would be dark either for camouflage or just choice, but every choice was plagued by either memories of Nocternia or Sekhmet, so I decided to go different. My dress was a light purple like Kalima choses. 

Erika got up and put two pancakes on my plate before she put three on her plate. "Do you want syrup or butter?" She made a gesture towards a box thing off to the side. I shook my head. She shrugged. "Suit yourself."

She got up and went towards the box. She opened it to show several things inside I didn't recognize. She got a yellowish tub, closed the door then went towards a drawer where she pulled out a tooth cleaner knife from the drawer, and came back over to the table. She opened up the tub and put some of the yellowish cream on top of the pancake then she closed the tub. She put it into the cold box and put the knife in the cleaning bathtub. Though it was too small for anything bigger than laundry. And I didn't know why she had two baths anyway. It seemed unreasonably lavious to me. 

She sat down across from me as she started to delicately nibble on her pancake stack. I looked down at the hand held claw thing and the tooth cleaner knife on either side of the plate. I picked up the claw thing and stabbed it into the pancake then I put it into my mouth. Thankfully, the portion of blueberries in the batter was low, so I didn't have to endure the taste too much. 

I managed to get through half of the pancake before I remembered the reason I had come here in the first place. Yesterday, I had gotten lost in the joy of having my family back that I had forgotten about it. "Erika, I have a question for you."

She looked at me. "What is it?"

"What do you know about Crystal Fruit Trees?"

She looked at me. "Nothing much. None of my books mention them." She took another bite of pancake. "Why?"

"Well, recently, I have been smelling them. Barely traces, but it is there."

She took another bite. "Is that why you came to me? You think I got one?"

I shook my head. "No. I know you too well for that. You aren't the type to grow one, but I did think you would keep some of the seeds at least."

She looked around. "Describe them to me. I might have a couple."

"Small, rounded, they look like gemstones." I made a few hand gestures as I talked. 

Erika's nose scrunched up as she thought before she shook her head. "No. You are going to have to ask Sol about them. He might know and I'm sure that they would love a visit from you. Moonhigh would be best though. Bastet is busy now trying to maintain the moon's rising." Erika leaned forward. "I am glad that I don't have to do that anymore. Now, I just got to help with eclipse and equinoxes." She waved her paw. "But I do help bring about the seasons and that is a full time job, but spring is my favorite. All the flowers in bloom and helping the animals to get up. I could do without the mating fever for most of them. But they aren't immortal like me, so they need to do it somehow. Annoying though. That's all they want to talk about then." She leaned back with a smile. "Sorry. I'm babbling. I'm just happy to have someone new to talk to."

"It's okay. I'm not much of a talker anyway."

She looked towards the cold box again. "Do you want something to drink? I have iced tea, orange juice, I could whip up some hot tea if you really want and I have water of course. Everyone has water."

"Water would be nice." I didn't know what orange juice was.

"Okay." She stood up and got a glass from one of the cuphouses on her walls. She put it in the tub and poured some of the water hose water into it. She turned around and set it on the table in front of me.

"Thank you." I had been a while since I had water of any kind, so I shall overlook the fact that she had given me hose water like a common canine.

"Your welcome." She sat back down. "So where have you been staying?"

"Here and there. Mostly with one of the young champions. Jade, I think her name is while I gathered my strength back." It was hard to disrespect the young champion by misremembering her name like that, but they were squishy. They went to Astra's stars too quickly. It was better to watch over the group rather than the individual. No matter how hard that may be.

Erika made a soft humming sound as she looked around the room. "So I take it that have met a couple of Freya's children then." The cuphouse door opened and a cup drifted towards us. It set down beside Erika's plate. The cold box door opened and a pitcher came out with a brown liquid inside. It tipped over the the cup and pour itself out. When it was almost full, the pitcher untipped itself and went back to the cold box.

"Which ones?" Jinx had tried to bring me along when she went to go train, but I didn't go. I had fun exploring the new world around me in all of my forms and it was actually a relief not to have to constantly maintain it.

"Seraphine and Kieran. Surely, you remember them. Sera is most like you in her temperament. I blame Set for that mostly." She picked up her cup. It must be tea in there. That was all she drank when she was younger, too. "She will make a good champion. I know it."

I tried to remember, but they fell away into a mass of faces and old memories that tore at my heart.  
"I might have. The Volcanic plains is quite, uh-"

"Populated?"

I laughed. It was a nice feeling. My constructed snake babies didn't laugh with me. "Yes, that is one way of putting it." I looked around the room again. "Why haven't you found yourself a mate? The rest of them seem to have found one."

She looked at me with an emotion I found hard to place before she breathed in deeply. It seemed to have left her with the wind. "Who would I have anyway? The others snapped up all of the immortals here and even if I had the desire to go and find someone else. They would most likely be mortal or fickle. No, it is better to live your life alone than disappointed every time." She took a gulp of her tea like it was an alcoholic of some kind. "And I really don't have that drive anyway."

"Fascinating." The silence that came over us was harsh and unbreakable aside from the clicking of silverware. I barely managed to taste the blueberries in the remaining pancake. 

When I was finished, Erika took my plate from me and put it into the wash tub along with my half drunk hose water. "I can show you the way to Freya and Sol's before I leave. It is almost summer, you know."

I stood up. "That would be best. I have never been here before you know."

"Yes, I do know." She moved towards the door. "Come on, follow me." I walked after her as she led me out into the glade.

"I thought you said he would be busy until moonhigh?"

She made a soft sound. "No, Bastet would be busy until moonhigh. Sol maintains the sun during its downphase."

"Oh." I looked around. Back in my day, Finris oversaw all of the day. I oversaw the night as was my right then.

"He lost round two to Phyrrah, so she got sunhigh." Erika said with a shrug as she lifted the hanging flowers away from me so I could walk through. The area shifted into a pine forest under a full moon. A lone owl hooted from somewhere. "Artemis and Phyrrah's domain. Though it seems Artie is topping this quarter." Erika laughed at that.

"Interesting." Erika led me through the forest. When we reached the end, the world changed to a field of sunflowers at the sun height. Erika led us through them and the world changed again. It was a moon at its cresent stage. The sunflowers were replaced by tall red trees that towered over everything. A lively music played through the forest. Erika led me through the forest until we reached a house.

It looked like a fortress. A thick gate and stone walls. A box with buttons and a black beard above them. "Yo, who goes there," A young male's voice spoke with traces of an accent that I couldn't place as to where it came from.

"Miquel, knock it off, please."

"Woah, what's got your panties in a twist, Auntie E?" I repressed the urge to cover my ears as a grinding noise reached my ears. The door opened up to reveal a bridge to a large square shaped house. It had an imposing air to it.

"Thank you, dear." She looked around the courtyard in front of us. "They changed it again. I liked the villa style alot better." She walked towards the door which opened slowly to allow us in. The walls were better lighted than I had expected. The houses in my days were little more than caves with beds in them.

"Who is Miguel." I fumbled my way through the name. I like the old ones better. They gave you an idea who the other person was. Sharpfang, Quickpounce. My sisters in that old life.

"A child they found recently. Sol brought him here and the rest is history. A good boy, he is and a good mind for numbers." Her words were defensive. My brain latched onto that word. I liked it. A good word. "I guess that makes him their kit now." I nodded as my brain kept tumbling back to my new favorite word. "I don't get involved with most of them. They go to quickly."

"Yes, that is the problem with kittens. They grow up." I saw Daughter and Winter. Small, so small. Runts. Not going to last. Let the oma take them. It was for the best. No. Mine. They were mine. I saw them growing. Then the cold came and they were weak. Very weak. Cold and death lurking. Always. I got weak. Then golden light and a choice. I turned to look at Erika for a minute. She was part of that choice. Daughter left and I got them back.

"Mother, are you feeling alright?"

I smiled at her. "Of course. Just thinking about the past."

She nodded and grabbed a hold of my hand. "Okay." She led me down the hall into a room. Sol looked up from the book in front of him with a puzzled expression until he saw me.

"Mother," He said. His accent was strange too. Though different from the boy's. "You are alive?"

"Bastet didn't tell you?" He shook his head at Erika's statement. "I just found out yesterday myself."

"She was acting strange this morning. Though I assumed it was, because it was almost summer. She gets pouty when the seasons turned. Always has, you know?" Erika nodded. I looked around. The room was lined with hollowed out trees filled with bark and stone tablets. Though I would think they would collapse under the weight of so many. Wonderful inventions. I turned back to see Sol looking at me. "Are you feeling alright, Mother?"

"She was acting weird in the hall."

Betrayer. "I am quite alright."

Sol looked around us then walked over to me. He grabbed ahold of my shoulders as a golden light shined around us. It hurt my eyes, so I closed them and watched the spots danced around. "She has a touch of madness, but nothing, I can't fix well enough."

"Sol, she has had that since we were kits, er, cubs." She gave a laugh that sounded strained. Probably, the stress of the day.

"Aside from that, I am a quite gifted healer if I say so myself."

"What else do you say?" The feeling like honey settled over me as my mind seemed to set itself back in order. I can't say it was the best, I had felt, but it was a start. The light ended and I opened my eyes as Sol stepped back.

"Oh. Sol, do you know anything about the crystal fruit tree?"

He shrugged. "Not much. It has shown to have cursious effects when given to pregnant women. Though the book didn't mention what they were. It said to refer to volume six, appendix four, but I couldn't find it."

I gave a short snort. "Yes, I would say the effects are curious enough." My tail flicked. Sol looked at me with a look of pure joy. It would seem he was finally happy to see me. Sweet child. I love him very much.

"What are they?"

"You really don't know?"

He shook his head. "We had to leave before I learned to, you remember?"

"Yes, I do. Crystal fruit trees appear to be made of living crystal as the name suggests."

"Like the Crystal City."

"Yes, like the Crystal City." Where had I gone wrong to raise such disrespectful children. "The trees give off fruit that look either like apples or like pomegranates. It depends on a lot of factors on which one you get. The moon and sun phase when you planted it. The soil acidity and drainability. How steady a flow of nutrients it was given."

"What kind of nutrients does it need?" Sol looked towards Erika. "It can't be anything good from the fact that you came all the way here."

"Well, actually, it just needs the things all plants need from the soil, but it needs blood to flower and bear fruit. A lot of it." I shuddered. "Before I knew that, Nocturna gave me a glass of it. She said she wanted to put aside our differences." I looked around. "That was right before I made you." Sol nodded for me to go on, but I couldn't as the memories surrounded and buried me underneath them. I breathed deeply. Sol walked forward. The glow was less bright now and my mind went back to its normal state.

Erika's ear flicked as she looked around. "Who would want to grow such a tree?"

"How would they be able to get enough blood for the tree?" Erika turned to look at him with a reproachful expression. She hissed. He growled. "It is a serious question."

"We don't even know how much it needs."

"She said a lot, so more than a papercut would give you. If we assume it needs to be watered at least once a day then someone is going to notice the disappearances." Erika made a clicking sound as Sol wandered off. He came back later with a kit toy clutched in his paws. It made a clicking sound as he moved the beads around. "If we go about four quarts a day. Though that assumption, they need a new person every two days. The average clan has about five thousand or so. Give or take." Erika was looking at him. She seemed to think that would accomplish something. "A person every two days. Thirty days in a month. It would need about fifthteen people a month." He moved some more of the beads. "About 180 a year."

"You are a lot like your father," I said as I looked at him.

"Yes, I know."

"We would notice if people were disappearing like that," Erika said.

"No, we wouldn't." Sol kept looking at his bead toy and mumbling. "Nine hundred thousand if we assume this has gone on as long as we were locked up here. That is enough to devistant any single clan. But they would have done well to take a few from every clan. Besides the hyenas. They would kill and eat any who tried."

"Are you admiring the serial killer?"

"No, I'm admiring the cult. No one would still be around nowadays from when we were still present." He clicked his tongue. "So we are dealing either with an immortal killer or a cult. It stands to reason that it is more likely to be a cult."

Erika sighed. "I need to go. The seasons don't keep themselves together. I might even find your cult."

"You might want to check out those rogues the Volcanic Plains are complaining about." Erika disappeared with a snort.

"Good idea." Sol walked off with a mumble as he looked through the bark and stone tablets before he pulled one down. "We should look into it. I'll go tell Bastet and send someone." He walked out of the room. I looked around the room again. Something would be done about the crystal fruit trees and I had been looking forward to the horse races. 

I disappeared and reappeared in a barn. I walked out of it and looked around. Volcanic style caves were set up around us. Women walked around yelling to friends as they did so. A few had horses carried around on ropes. Others were brushing them and doing their hair. It seems counterproductive to me. They would just be dirty again tomorrow.  
I felt a tug on my skirt. I looked down to see a small white furried girl with dark eyes. "Hello, little miss."

She smiled at me. "Hello. Are you new? I haven't seen you before?"

I smiled back. "Yes, I am."

"Oh, I thought so."

"Mari what have I told you about running off?" A boy appeared from around the barn.

"But I wanted to see Red before the race." She pouted at him and let go of my skirt finally. He picked her up.

"Sorry, miss. She is a bit of a handful. Along with the others." The boy laughed then he looked at me. "I don't think I have seen you here before?"

"No, I'm part of the young princesses's entourage."

He nodded. "That makes sense. You're Volcanic?"

I nodded slowly. "Yes."

"Have you met my sister? Well, one of my many, many sisters?"

"Well, I have seen this little one." I said with a laugh. It wasn't funny, but it seemed to be the right place to put it.

"No, I mean Keira. She hangs out with the princess a lot." The boy adjusts the girl.

"Yes. I have met her." I had. Lovely girl.

"Well, she isn't here yet, but I hope she will be soon. Grandmother Theresa is making antelope stew and it's her favorite you know."

I nodded. "Well, they are still a few hours out. I am part of the advance scouts. The queen wanted to make sure the area was safe before Kalima arrived."

The boy nodded with a laugh. "That does sound like her." He looked up. "Well, we got to go. Our grandmothers are expecting us and if we are late, they are going to tan our hides for clothing." I nodded and they left. I walked forward and lost myself in the chatter and the crowd. A few times, I stopped at one of the caves to look at something pretty though I didn't have anything to trade for it. Finally, the woman around me surged forward as a familiar dragon set down. Diana looked mad at something, though I don't understand why. Kieran slides off of a young green followed by Kalima. Ayala got down from a snowshade dragon. I looked around for the others, but they weren't there. Poor grandmother Theresa wasn't going to have antelope stew with Keira today. That's sad.

I walked forward to them. Kalima looked at me with confusion before she whispered something to Kieran that I couldn't hear and he whispered something back as understanding dawned on her. "Hello, younglings."

"Hello, Tiamat," Kieran said. I looked at him. He looked like me in the shape of his face. Other than that he looked like Set and Freya. At least, he looked good.

"I was wondering when you would get here. I was here for hours."

"We had a bit of a delay. Sandworms then an avalanche happened. It was a long night," Kalima said with a shrug. "We should probably set up camp." We nodded. "Does anyone know how to set up a tent?" A silence fell over us as none of us knew how to.

"We could ask Keira's brother. He seemed nice." A little old to still be with his family, but so was Kieran.

"Which one?"

"She has more than one?" And they haven't killed each other yet? That is quite surprising.

"Yes. She has several. Do not ask me how many though. I do not know."

"Do you know where they live?"

"No."

"Well, we are just going to have to try to put it up anyway. Maybe, we will be good at it." That turned out to be our famous last words as after the sixth try ended up causing Eona to finally give up and find the boy. His name turned out to be Basil. That would be a strange name for when he was a mane. Basilmane.


	6. Chapter 6

We are horrible at putting up tents that was the lesson we learned there, but Basil was really good at it for some reason. Probably came about because he was from the grasslands. They were mostly nomads according to Keira and my teachers. Before he went back to his tent, I managed to catch him to ask him where high rock was. He seemed surprised at the question, but he gave me pretty good directions. He also offered to show me where it is, but I declined it quickly. Ink Drop hadn't said not to bring anyone, but it was part of any mystery that Queen Diana solved. They hadn't said a time either, but they might tell me later.

I headed back to the tent where Ayala had went about setting up the house. Kieran had dropped the illusion spell of the others and was currently reading over something. Tiamat had apparently left us again though she didn't say where. I helped Ayala make up a bed for each of us and put up the few bits of things we took with us. Before long, it was done and we had nothing to do. I picked up my Queen Diana book and started to read it while Ayala started sewing on something.

By the time, I was finished with two chapters of the book, Kieran was finished with his paperwork and had moved on to something else that apparently involved him leaving the tent without telling us why and where he was going. Not that he needed to do that, but it would have been nice if he had done so. I picked up my book and started to read it again. 'Trouble in paradise?'

I looked up from my book. "No. At least not any I know."

'Okay.' She went back to her sewing.

"Do you think there is?"

She set it down again after Pink Diamond Dust nipped at her jaw. 'I don't know.' She sighed. 'Do you think there is?' Pinkie looked around the room.

"I don't know. I have never been in a relationship before. It is really hard." Ayala put her hand on my shoulder.

'It doesn't get better.'

"Thank you."

'Though it gets easier. As you grow together, there will be times when you argue and snap at each other, but they will end.' She stood up. 'Come on. I need some inspiration and you need air.' I stood up and Ayala grabbed my wrist and lead me out of the tent.

~Kieran~

Paperwork was always a good excuse to not talk to people. Mostly because it always needed to be done and mostly because it gave me a good excuse to go over my plans for this event. Most of them were simple for right now that funneled down the road into much deeper plans. Right now, I need to introduce myself to the nobility. "Hey," I turned my head to look at the young female next to me. "Aren't you Kieran?" She looked like Sofia, expect a little older. Maybe, her mom or older sister. She kept her wings tightly folded behind her like they were a new part of her or they were uncomfortable.

"Yes. Who are you?" It was a little more polite than I usually was. but it didn't pay to make enemies in court.

She smiled. "Lady Sarafina of the Forest Clan. Caterina talks about you often." 

"She does?"

She nodded. "Of course. Now, why are you wondering around here at this time of day? I would think you would be asleep." She turned her head slightly as a young white furred woman with red pointed ears and tail walked out from the tent behind us. "Hello, Mari doll." The woman laughed.

"Hello to you too, my little pearl." The woman had a high voice with an ice queen accent. "Who is this little minx kitten?"

"This is Caterina's friend, Kieran. Don't you remember me telling you about him?"

She looked at me with a vapid look. "Yes, I do."

She was almost definitely a trophy mate or a meal ticket. I can't tell which. "It is nice to meet you." Though perfaps I was being a little too quick to judge.

"My name is Maria. If you were wondering." A squirrel ran up her arm though I can't tell where it came from. "Hello, Edmund." She scratched under its chin and it squeaked at her in what I assume was happiness.

"Her familiar. Sweet thing." I couldn’t tell which one she was talking about.

"Seems nice enough."

"Yes, he is. Are you looking for something? I have been here plenty of times."

"I wasn't going anywhere in particular. Just couldn't sleep." It wasn't actually a lie, but it wasn't exactly a truth.

"Oh, well. If you need help finding your way around, you know where to find me."

I smiled. "That I do." I turned away and started walking away. Not too many people were out in and about right now. Most of the ones that were had think grasslands accents. I memorized a few of the names I heard repeated: Jason, Alexander, Kallipo, Cassandra and Persephone. A few talked to me and I tried to be as nice as I could be. Though that was becoming harder. I was naturally of an introverted temperament and all of these people were wearing me down. I stopped at a few stalls and bartered for a few trinkets that meant nothing to me, but looked slightly pretty. Then I headed back to the tent and I only had to ask for directions twice though the woman who gave me directions the second time was creepy about talking to me. I memorized her name to give to Cass later to look up: Medea.

When I reached the tent, I made up my bed then laid down to sleep. I managed to get to sleep easy enough though I woke up when the girls got back, but went back to sleep. When the sunset, I woke up. A little cranky from lack of sleep, but it wasn't nothing that uncommon. Kalima and Ayala were still asleep, so I decided to read Death Note until they did since I had completed most of the paperwork Mother had said I had to do. I don't know why, but she had told me to do it, so I had to do it.

I had started a teapot on a heat stone which took a lot longer than I was happy about because it had been many, many years since I had used one. Thankfully, I had packed a couple of muffins, so we wouldn't starve here. I picked through the muffins until I settled on a banana nut one. I was halfway through chapter three when Kalima woke up. She grumbled for a few minutes before she got up, made herself a cup of tea, and started reading on her Queen Diana and The Snow Beast's curse book. I had never read that one, but I was only a casual fan of Aunt Erica and Rose Red's work. I went back to my book.

Kottr and Sora walked in later with a violet wreathe around her neck and an orange wreath around his. I couldn't place what the flowers were on Kottr's wreath. "Do I want to know," I said as I closed my book around my finger as I looked at them.

Sora giggled. 'We found a tribe of sentient buffalo griffin men who made us these wreaths as a thank you for solving the mystery of life.'

'No, we didn't.' Kottr huffed and bumped against her. 'We solved the three hoof ring and were crowned their leaders. Then we stepped down to introduce them to democracy.' 

"You know, sometimes, I can't tell if you are joking."

They leaned into each other and laughed. 'That's the point.' Sora leaned away first then walked away to Kalima's bedroll.

'I'm going to bed before I pass out,' Sora said with a purr in her words and flick of her tail. Kottr walked over and laid down next to her.

It was strange that they were such a loving couple when Kalima and I weren't. Though that was probably just because of personality. I have never been very touchy-feely. If fact, most of my classmates had joked that I was a sociopath though they were ice queens so I didn't put much stock in what they though about me. 

I turned the page on my book as I lifted up my teacup slowly. I drank a small amount out of it then set it back down next to me. "So how was your morning?"

I turned to look at Kalima. "Basically this."

"Oh. Okay."

"How was your morning?"

She looked back at me. "You were there for most of it."

"Yes, I was." I looked back down at my book and Kalima looked back down at hers.

"Are you mad at me? Because I have no idea about why, so you are going to have to tell me. I'm still learning about people." Kalima was looking down at her book.

"Why would you think I was mad at you?"

"Well, we haven't talked in a day or so and Ayala asked me if something was wrong." She was twitching her leg slowly.

"You think I give the silent treatment when I'm mad? I make snippy comments constantly." My tail twitched quickly. "I do it all the time with Delta."

"I just thought that was your way of coping with stressful situations."

"Yes. It is." I set aside my book. "Look, I'm not good with affection or the dating stuff. I mean, I have more experience with it then you do, but most people do."

"What do you mean?"

"I had a boyfriend before this, but that was before the prison world. Plus, Bridget had a lot of boyfriends and girlfriends come and go." I shrugged.

"You had a boyfriend?"

"Yes, I did. We meet in school and hit it off. It lasted a couple of years, but we ended it shortly after I was put in the prison world." I shrugged. We didn't real end it, so much as he stopped calling and I gave up hope.

"Oh. Are we okay? You know, as a couple?"

"Yes, of course, we are." I flicked my tail. "I am introvert and need time away from people. I wasn't ignoring you."

"That's good. I'm one too."

"I figured that." I flicked my tail over hers then back again. I picked up my book and she went back to hers with a happy expression. Ayala got up a couple minutes later, made herself a cup of tea then she picked up some fabric and started to work on the embroidery currently on it. A couple times, she went back and pulled up some of the stitches. 

"Does anyone know when the breakfast bell rings?"

"The people in the Grasslands eat with their pride and not in a group like with the volcanic plains." I turned the page again, careful to make sure I didn't miss one of the very thin papers.

"Oh. So when is breakfast then?" I handed Kalima the muffin basket. She picked one then started to poke at the wrapping. "What is this manner of force field about this?" She was cute when she was confused.

Ayala laughed softly. 'It's a wrapper.'

"What's a wrapper?"

"It goes around the food to keep it from going bad as fast." I took the muffin from her and unwrapped it. She took it back from me then pulled the other wrapper from it before she took a bite. It was followed quickly by another. Strange, I have never cared for blueberries. Mother said it was family thing, but her and father didn't mind them.

I went back to my book and made it to chapter seven before the races were announced to be starting soon. The girls changed while I went to get our seats. I spent a few minutes crafting the illusions of our team mates. Though it took me a while to get Seraphine a dress she would have approved of if she was here, but I gave her a hat that would make the Kentucky derby hats look like a preschooler's play props. A brother had to have his pride.

Thankfully, the noble's have a box with enough space to seat all of us including the illusions. A few of the women were milling around the room and chatting with each other. I waved at Sarafina and Lady Maria. Lady Lily looking at me like I was last season's handbag. Next to her was a young girl that could only be her daughter in a purple wrap dress with pink butterflies on the hem and a large brimmed purple hat with butterflies of the same shade in the netting. She was looking down at the horses with a blank expression. A white furred male was talking to a short furred brown and black spotted male. I assumed they were Lord Draco and Lord Nathan. Though that was because they were the only males there. A brown furred city griffin was talking to a golden furred woman and a blue furred woman. Probably, Lady Tiana, Lady Erica, and Lady Princess Serena. A blond girl was sitting on one of the pillows provided. She looked nervous somehow. I didn't see Lady Orica or Lady Astrid, so they must have been late.

I started to move around the room, keeping enough of an eye on the illusions. Most of them took seats quickly, but I made a few move towards the food and nibble on a few of them. Don't ask me where the food went though. I don't have any idea. I exchanged a few words with each of the ladies though most were just small talk. Lady Maria surprised me by having a very detailed conversation about the horses racing and their linage. Lady Sarafina was quick to tell me that Lady Maria was from a horse farm to the north. 

Afterwards, I moved over to the betting table and laid down a few small bets on the first and second races though never more than my daily allowance would allow me to. Mother would be incredibly mad if I asked for more, because of a gambling habit. Worse, I might have to pay it off on my own. The woman on the other side of it was surprisingly helpful though she seemed to have a small crush on me.

Thankfully, Kalima arrived soon afterwards with Ayala following behind her. She walked up to me and handed me a funnel cake than I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with. I nibbled on it as we went to our seats. Lady Astrid and Lady Orica appeared a minute later and they quickly found their seat as the race was about to start. Though, Lady Orica stopped at the table to make a hefty donation to the horse fund. She had a gambling addiction apparently. That was in character for the Crystal City. 

Soon, the race started. I lost that bet, but I won on the second race and that was the larger of the two. I got some of my investment back, so I was happy at least. I used that to bet on the third and fourth races. I lost both. I stopped gambling after that. Kalima and I walked around the fair during the intermission between the fourth and the fifth races. We didn't get very far, but we purchased a few worthless trinkets that looked pretty as well as a few devices on their first test period. Luna would want to take them apart then put them back together. She had improved quite a few things over the years like that. We made it back just as the races began again. Ayala had saved our seats. She is very sweet. She could be a good friend if I cultivate the relationship.

I watched the next races with boredom. The final race ended in an upstart when a horse fell in love with a mouse. I think the the announcer said the horse's name was Fig Neutron. We left the stands and went back through the fair. Kalima got some pink cotton candy that was making a come back after Mayura had decided to reopen the world pools.

But the colonies were slow to take in the tourists now. They were complaining about lack of resources to the crown and to Mother. Jessie and Eliza are trying to help, but most of them want to talk directly to Mother. It was pretty smart, but it was driving her crazy. I had tried to help, but I was shooed away to deal with champion business.

We reached our tent later on with our purchases. Most of them were placed off to the side while a few were placed in our luggage. Kalima started to read on her book, but she left afterwards to find the bathroom. Though I wanted to see her reaction to her first outhouse, I remained behind as it would be creepy to follow her to the bathroom. 

I picked up my Death Note and started to read it when a letter fell out. I picked it up and unfolded it. It read:

Kieran, my oldest of friend,

I need to talk to you at dawn tomorrow.

Sighed,

Ink Drop the third of Lupelupe cottage.

I folded the paper again then looked around the room. My heart was pounding. I hadn't heard from him for centuries and he thinks he can just send me a short note to get me to show up? Well, I probably would. Something must be wrong for him to ask me to meet him again after all of this time and I missed him. Not always the relationship, but our friendship. I looked down at my Death Note as I finally made the choice to see him tomorrow. I can't let our friendship die if there was even a chance. I got up and walked over to my bedroll. I would need to be rested for my meeting. I closed my eyes and let sleep come to me after a good while of just laying there.

~Kalima~

I kept my hand close to my weapon at all time. It was a lesson Dad had drilled into me every chance he got. I needed to be able to defend myself even when my sister in shield wasn't here. Even when she was laid up with a terrible sickness. I made my way through the camp. I smiled and waved at a few people who did so to me. A few curtsied or bowed, but those were few and far between. Thankfully.

I made it out of the camp and to the high rock on the every edge of the camp. A boy was waiting for me with a tea set next to him and a cup of tea in his pale hands. "You must be Ink Drop." He looked down at me. A black paw print like marking decorated his nose.

"Yes, I am. You are Kalima?"

I nodded. "The one and only."

"Aside from your mirror self." He took a sip of his tea.

"You said that you wanted to talk with me about something?"

He nodded. "I do need to talk to you."

"Are you going to ask me?" My tail twitched as I looked for a way to climb up the rock in front of me.

"Yes. There is a trail around the back way." I moved around the rock to see a slope leading up to it. I moved up it quickly without falling down it though I tripped twice. I made it and sat as far from him as I could manage.

I looked at him now that I was closer. He was taller than me, but he was skinny. Like he had missed a lot of meals. His ears looked more like a lupian's than a kanji. His clothing could have passed for an ice queen's, but they were dirty and ragged. "What do you want to talk to me about?"

He smiled. "Well, princess, what do you know about the Rogue wars?" He stared me down. I stared as four tails swirled out around him. "And their effects on the Icy Mountains?"

"Not much."

He nodded. "I thought so. The Icy Mountain government is mostly neutral in the conflict though the peasants are raided every year. Most get by with a goat or two, but recently they have started demanding land to grow crops on. They can't give that as they are sharecroppers growing the crops on other's land. My family used to be like that, but I got us out. Though it took a lot of years to save up enough to do it. But that is off topic. The ones that don't give them what they want, well," He shuddered in a harsh way, "they take people. Not all of the family, no, that would get the crowns attention or at least, the guard involved, but the ones they take are never seen from again. I was investigating some of the rumors when they found us. My family. They demanded spells and magic from us. Armor and weapons, mostly. We refused to do it. We had lost many of our friends during the raids and they retaliated. They cast a lock spell over our home. None of us would be able to leave, but I managed to get the youngest of us out. I had to leave them with others of us. But it has been months since then and I can't undo the spell. No matter what I try, it fails."

"I am sorry. What can I do to help?"

"You are the princess. My family will find a way to get out of there. We have too many allies for that, but the others are still getting raided. A couple times, the guards catch a Rogue and send him to the palace, but we see them again. There are traitors every where apparently. I don't know where the corruption happened, but it is there." He sighed. "You are a champion of Bastet, you bring hope where ever you go and my people need a champion to defend us."

"I am supposed to bring hope? You do not know me too well. I am not a hopeful person."

He shook his head. "You don't have to be. What we need is someone to cleanse the land again. A clean slate there."

"You mean, I am supposed to kill the heads of Ice Queen government and kill all of the Rogues."

"Yes to the Rogues, no to the government. You are the princess, as I said. If you go there and start poking around then the rats will reveal themselves."

"And how am I supposed to do that? I won't survive a hour there. I am not trained in that kind of politics." My breath was coming in faster and my mind was swirling around the numerous possible outcomes. I could die. Kieran could die. The rat could die. Which wouldn't be too horrible, but I didn't like the way it felt in my mind.

"I could train you. I spent many years of my life with that politics."

"You would train me?" My mind stalled. "How do I know I can trust you?"

He waved his tails. "I'm a Kitsune, if you haven't noticed. Just use that to blackmail me or something."

"I don't- I mean- I do not do blackmail."

He nodded. "The Lady and her court do. A lot of it. Thankfully, I know most of it." He sighed. "Look, my family need you as well as the rest of them." He waved his tails again.

I was going to rule them someday and I can't let the attacks against them stand. "Fine, but I am bringing Ayala and Kieran along."

He nodded. "I assumed so. That's why I brought all milkweed and topaz." I blinked at him. I have no idea what that was. "Loyalty sickness cure. It was worked out when I was in school though it works more as a preventive then an absolute cure. They have to do that on their own."

"How do you know about the sickness?" Delta had only mentioned it once and she said nothing about a cure for it. In fact, she made it sound like a death sentence.

"I dated a volcanic boy for a few years before he broke it off. I was sad for a while, but I am over it now." He shrugged. “Mostly.

My brain finally clicked. "You dated Kieran?" He nodded. "Wow. You are old. Really old." He nodded again.

"I am five thousand, one hundred, and fifty years old."

"So Kieran likes older men and younger girls?" I laughed shortly as the tension rose again in my chest.

Ink Drop nodded. "Apparently so. Though I will admit, I thought he was gay during our school years. He didn't notice any of the girls there and he only seemed interested in me." His tails flicked. "Maybe he is a demisexual."

"No, he is not into incest." I managed to say that with a straight face before I broke out in laughter that Ink Drop didn't join.

"What do you mean?"

"Demisexual. Demigod." He still didn't seem to get the joke. "They sound alike."

"Yes, they do." He looked at me with a blank expression still.

"Okay, so when should I show up to the Icy Mountains?" Maintaining a cover story was always important in the stories I had read.

"The Summer Flight Ball is coming up in a weeks time. It is the second social event of the season. You will be expected to attend this year." He sighed. "You really should know this."

I shrugged. "I only knew the season as the time when my friends visited." 

I was going to go to a party in the Icy Mountains. Who was I going to take with me? Kieran couldn't keep up the illusions forever especially during a party where there would contact to them. Not even the best illusionist could maintain an illusion good enough to have heat enough to fool people. So I would have to call people and we would need to mix up our rosters for this. I would love for Delta and Keira to come with me, but Delta would get the sickness from them. She wouldn't believe in Ink Drop's cure for it. Keira is a good friend, but she is tackless. The Ice Queens would skin her alive. Fay would be the logical next choice, since I enjoyed her company, but she was still volcanic and it wouldn't do for her to get the sickness on top of the magic woo-woo thing infecting her. Seraphine would stand out with me and she was a good enough friend. She would enjoy the chance to show off and she was trusting enough to take the cure. Caterina would be just as much a mer out of water as I was, but I would enjoy spending time with her. Plus, she was pale enough to be a native. Lyra would go with Caterina, of course. Aleksandr would have to stay with the chaos people since Seraphine would be leaving.

"Are you okay?"

I blinked as I was drawn out of my thoughts. "Yeah, just thinking." He did say before this that the Rogues were involved, I think. So besides the party aspect, who would I need. Delta and Fay were obvious choices, but Fay was out of the game. Kieran has said many times that he was good with stealth missions. He would also be really good with the party aspect as well. Delta would much better with the Rogues and it would give her a good reason to try the sickness cure, if only because she needs to beat them.

"Okay. You should leave as soon as possible though it wouldn't do for people to get suspicious." He waved his hands while he talks. It was kind of annoying. "So stay for the next three days then leave to the Icy Mountains." 

Did he know that we were going to meet up in two days now? He couldn't have, but I couldn't have the possibility for it to dismiss it and it turn out to be true. Always expect the obvious while preparing for the worst as Mother says. Then she and Dad argue about the correct phrase. It was kind of funny. "I think that would be for the best."

"Yes. Do you want me to escort you back to your tent?"

I shook my head. "No, thank you. I can manage to make it." Even if he knew where it was, I would sleep better if I didn't lead him right to it now. I did need to talk to Kieran and Ayala to get their opinion on it. I would be for the best. 

I stood up and moved along the path slowly so I didn't fall down. "Okay, be safe. " I waved and walked back down through the tents until I reach ours. Ayala was working on a sketch that seemed to be troubling her. She would draw something then erase it a minute later. Kieran was writing something down in a black book with no title. It must have been a journal. I sat down on my bed and looked at them as I tried to work up the nerve to start this conversation.

"Are you okay?" I turned to look at Kieran as I thought over the question. I was physically alright though my heart beat was a little faster than normal. Mentally, I was anxious though no more than I usually was, so I was pretty sure I was alright.

"Yes. I am." I took a deep breath in. "I need to talk about something."

'Do I need to leave the room for this?' Ayala looked up from her sketch. Pink Diamond Dust moved out form behind her to walk up to me. She ruffled up her feathers.

"I though Pink Diamond Dust was Doe's dragon?" My tail flicked as I recognized that I had gotten off topic now.

Ayala nodded. "Doe wanted me to take Pinkie with me since Pinkie hates the Swampland's humidity." Pink Diamond Dust chittered at that, so Ayala smiled. "And the bugs as well. Though I can't say I like ticks myself."

"Neither do I." I had read a book about the effects of ticks on people for my magic class. I think she was trying to punish me for something, but I can't remember what.

"They are Grandmother's mistake." He seemed to be in a bad mood. Probably from the strain of maintain the illusions. I can imagine that it was pretty hard to do. I could only cast a mage light for an hour or two. Maybe more, If I had to, but I needed to eat enough to feed a baby red dragon afterwards. "Is this the conversation you want to have or did it get railroaded."

"I don't know what that means." I flicked my tail. I had read it a couple of times in one of my books though even Rose Quartz was able to explain it to me. Blue Diamond said he had a book, but he wasn't able to find it.

Kieran looked at me for a minute. "I don't know what it means either. It's just something people say."

"Anyway, I need to tell you something." I summoned the Queen Diana book that Ink Drop had put his message in. "A couple of nights ago, I got a letter from someone to meet them at High Rock. Then yesterday, I got a note saying to meet him today." I took a breath in slowly. Kieran and Ayala were looking at me curiously. "So I went to meet him today. Apparently, the Rogues locked up his family, that was his word for them, when they would bespell armor and weapons for them." I took another breath then another. "So he asked us to come with him to the Icy Mountains-" Ayala shuddered-"to check it out. I said we would, but I need help deciding who would be best to go."

"Does this guy's name happen to be Ink Drop?" I turned to look at him sharply. "I thought so. He wrote me, too." Kieran took in a breath and straightened up his back. "And here is where it gets interesting. We, um, dated when I was younger."

"Oh, so he was the guy." I smiled. "You have good taste. He was kind of cute."

"You are just saying that, because I chose you." He stuck his tongue out in a Seraphine-like manner.

'Lovely moment. You are making me miss Doe.' Ayala looked around the room then back down at her sketch with a frown. She started muttering something about fur lines and bodice clings. I couldn't understand what it meant though she seemed a little happier now. They must have been a good thing.

"What did he say in your letter?"

"He needed to talk to me at dawn tomorrow."

"That's it?"

"He may be a little on the dramatic side, but he isn't usually given to do so in writing." Kieran's tail flicked slowly as he looked around the room.

"You know, I could go with you tomorrow if you want." My ear was flicking slowly.

"That would be nice, but it is better if I went alone. We don't want your mother to hear rumors of us sneaking off to caboodle in the early morning hours. She seems like she would believe them over me."

I nodded.That was true. "No one says caboodle except your sister. Seraphine." I added to make sure he knew which one I meant.

Kieran nodded. "Yes, she does. It is very annoying."

'That's what having a sister is about. Or so I hear. I don't have one, but I do have a cousin.'

"Hana, I met her at the dinner."

"I was not aware you had cousins."

'A cousin. My family is not very fertile.' She gave a short snort. 'Must have been the inbreeding in the early years.'

"How else would Ice Queens get pelts so white."

"Caterina has white fur and we don't have incest in our tree."

"Yes, you do. King Sebastian married his second cousin, Amanda in a civil ceremony then made his niece, Lady Elisabeth, his concubine when she came of age. That lead to the events of the King Novak war." Kieran looked at me. "It was taught in my history class."

"I never heard that."

'Your mother probably made the teacher sanitize it.' That did sound like something Mother would do. "She seems to be that sort."

"She might have. I honestly don't know. There are gaps in my knowledge that could be either of our fault." I shrugged. My teachers were a recent thing after an argument that Dad won before that I was taught by Rose Quartz and books. Mother was scared that one of the teachers would kidnap me though I didn't understand why they would want to.

Kieran nodded. "I understand. I spent most of my kithood getting tutored. Though it ended quickly when Seraphine and I started fighting over our fencing teacher. She left for a month to hunt demons and I left to the Icy Mountains to get my wings."

'You don't have wings.'

"It is an expression too."

'Oh, that explains it.' Ayala had moved across the room from us some time ago. She was using a manikin to make a skirt now. At least, that is what it looked like she was doing. The most I knew about dressmaking was stand still, hold arms up, and come back in a bit. Pink Diamond Dust was laying on her shoulder with her wings folded in.

Kottr and Sora walked into the tent. 'What? Did we interrupt something?' Sora was holding a bucket filled with pink cotton candy while Kottr had frosted horse shoes in a bag.

"No."

'Yes.'

I turned to Ayala. "What?"

'They are. I was just getting into the flow. Now, I have to get it back.'

"My sister has an Aunt Flo that she like to joke about. Though aparently I don't have one, so it doesn't make any sense." Kieran shrugged.

'Bridget was making a period joke.' Kottr sighed and shook his tail.

"How does Aunt Flo have anything to do with a period? It's just a sentence ender."

Kottr stared at me before he rolled his eyes. 'Never mind.' He walked across the tent with Sora flowing to flop down on Ayala's bed.

"I still don't get it."

Kieran shrugged. "I don't either. I guess it's just one of those things that don't get explained."

"Oh, I hate those. Once, there was a wererabbit-'possum love baby in Queen Diana and the Silver Striker and it only appeared in one chapter with no baring on the actual plot." Kieran nodded though he did not seem to actually understand what I was talking about. I miss Fay. She understood when I started talking nerd things with her. I like that about her best.

"How? How would that would work?" Kieran looked at me as if this was the strangest thing ever when we had already found sandworms and battled against a primordial goddess. This was pretty mild Tuesday for us. I had always wanted to say that. Princess Lillian had said it in volume six of her series. Though that was as far as I got on it. The quality had dropped quickly after that one. Then they did the choose your adventure books and it was officially dead then. Then she had her face eaten by an octopus. Then she was eaten by a shark which was eaten by a sperm whale which didn't make sense, but it happened. Horrible book. It had Rose Quartz complaining for a whole month before she worked on anything new. Plus that was the month that Sockie was visiting, so they didn't really do much besides complain. How anyone can be so ashamed of their family, I will never know.

'I don't know. Maybe,' Ayala stopped and thought it over in a jumble of weird pictures that Sora seemed to delight in showing to me. 'I don't know. It is fiction though, so it doesn't have to be just like reality.' I looked towards her. Across the violet colored hem of the dress was dark blue stars the same color as the top part of the skirt. Beside it was a slightly darker blue fabric while a blue and pink threads rested just below it on the stool. She was humming softly and slowly as she moved around behind it.

"I don't know. Maybe, it was magic."

Kieran shrugged. "It could be though it isn't possible without blood magic. Even then if needs to happen really young for it to have an lasting effect. Though a good illusions can give the appearance that something changed. Some of them can stand up to the real thing though that takes a lot of magic."

'Yep.' Kottr was laying on his back now with his legs in the air. Sora was laying next to him with a bunch of cotton candy in her mouth. 'It does and not all of it comes from the caster.' His tail was wagging.

"Yes." Kieran leaned over to pet his stomach. Kottr balled up around his hand and started nibbling on his hand. "You are a very brave hunter." He started to ramble off baby talk as Kottr and him continued to play. I grabbed my book and I started to flip through it until I reached where I stopped reading. Time slowed down or so it seemed. Before long though, my eyes started to droop and I headed off to bed with Sora snuggled next to me with a drool covered ball of yarn in her claws.

~Sofia~

Fay was a horrible patient. She wanted to be up as soon as she woke up, but her legs gave out on her. When she couldn't get up, she wanted her sketch book. Then she was pretty quiet, so I decided to help Fin clean up the place. That was a long ordeal that made me kills quite a few spiders. Though he swears they shouldn't have been able to get inside. When we finished with the cleaning, I moved around the furniture. Most of it was slightly rotted or moth eaten, so I put those aside in their own pile. We would have to replace them. One of the room was empty aside from a few statues. When I was finished with all that, I took a bath in the surprisingly modern bathroom and changed my clothes. When I got tired, I slept in Fay's room with her. Mostly because the other rooms still needed some work.

My dreams were strange though. Not in the usual way of dreams, but it was as if I was staring out of someone's eyes. I didn't have wings anymore which wasn't unusual, but I had come to love them in the time I had them. I was still female. Thank was something to be thankful for. My back hurt. It felt hot and raw. I couldn't remember my name, but I remembered a number: sixty-four, row four. As the dream went on, I seemed to sink deeper into this person. Then I woke up before anything else happened.

Fin was standing over me. I blinked. "Hi."

"Your spirit left your body."

That wasn't something you heard everyday. "What?"

Fin stepped back as I got up from my back."Your spirit left your body for a short time."

"That's what I thought you said." What was the meaning of this? How did it happen? Has it happened before and I never noticed it. Was that what the dream was about. Did I possess someone?

"It is what I said. You are newly into these powers?" I nodded. "That is what I thought. Where you chosen all together or did some of you get chosen first?"

"We were chosen together." This was starting to sound like a doctor’s appointment.

"When?"

"A month or two ago." It didn't seem like a long time when I said it like that, but it had changed my whole life. "Closer to one though." We partied for three days, learned to access our magic though that was still something I was learning, it took us a week to devise training methods. Then Delta received the letter and we spent a week packing our things and preparing.

"Huh." He looked towards where Fay was sleeping. "She must have a strong will to fight off the sickness for so long. Though it may have just been chance."

"I haven't know her for long now." We hadn't really spent any time together and the time we had spent told me she was incredibly sarcastic.

"Of course." He looked around the room. "Now to get back on topic. Your spirit left your body, because your magic sensed someone that needs your help. It is part of being Erika's champion."

"So I can expect it to happen often?"

"Sometimes. Though it depends on the depths of your own magic. I can't say how often though it should increase in times of great peril. You can also expect an increase in your emotion sensitivity." He coughed deeply. "Well, you will one day be able to sense people's emotions." His tail wagged through the still slightly dusty floor. I hadn't gotten to this room yet in my cleaning. Then I looked around as I realized the room looked lighter than it had been. Sunlight was streaming through a window facing me. The room was now bare of most anything aside from mine and Fay's bed.

I wonder where Fin sleeps. Then I forced myself to face what he had said. I was going to be an empathy one day. That would definitely put some strain of me going to any college that wasn't online. Though that was what I was leaning towards right now since my champion duties might overlap with the class schedule while online college would have more flexible hours. "So my spirit can leave my body and I am going to start feeling everybody else's emotions. Yay."

Fin sighed. "In a way, yes. Though your range of excitability is clearly not up to the task." His tail twitched and he raised his ears up. "Now, you can learn to control the ability, but it will take time for you to do so. For the minute," He turned around and left the room only to come back with a necklace in his mouth. He dropped the necklace into my lap. "This can prevent it for the minute as you learn."

"This happens enough for there to be a cure?"

He nodded. "It doesn't just work for this. The magic in it is the same that prevents spirits from possessing you." He sighed. "Only reversed in this case to prevent you from doing it to others. My mate made it for pregnant women who wanted to protect their kittens form miscarriage. Though it didn't work well in the early stages, but it works well enough to keep souls in their designated bodies."

I picked it up as my mind raced over the implications. The band of it was a thick and light blue. A stone rested on a loop. There was faint markings on the stone that I couldn't make out. "It is pretty."

He nodded. "Yes. She had a good eye for such thing." He made a snorting sound though I couldn't tell what caused it. Though I would be good at it when my empathy magic came in. I put it around my neck. It stretched. That was good since it didn't have a hook on it.

"It fits."

He nodded. "Yes, it is supposed to. That was part of the enchantment." Fay made a noise and I turned to her. Fin moved away from me and towards her. Fay sat up and looked around.

"You are loud."

"We were just talking." Not yelling, but we weren't exactly whispering either.

"You're magic has advanced."

"Wonderful. What does that mean?" Fay was glaring down at him.

"While you were asleep, one part of the your magic came in. It has increased your hearing though you will be able to turn it off when you get better. Artemis isn't cruel to her chosen."

"Great. Something else changed now." Fay looked around the room with her normal expression. "Where is my journal?" She got out of the bed and walked around the room before she went back to the bed with it. She opened it and started to draw something in it.

I stood up. I need food. "Do you want some breakfast?"

Fay nodded. "Muffins, if we have them. Something spicy if we don't."

That was one of the easiest breakfast orders ever. Fin walked after me as I left the room. He showed me the kitchen which was just across the meeting hall. The kitchen looked like it came straight out of the fifties. My Tia Nadia would have loved it while my mom would have hated it since it wasn't her kitchen. She was very particular about her kitchen though I helped her enough to know her system. With this kitchen though it took a minute to find everything. But soon, I had started the coffee and started mixing up some muffins for Fay.

~Keira~

Caterina was humming. It was annoying. Though finding the Rogues camp was turning out to be a problem. I was the only tracker in our group and it was slow going now. Jinx was acting out and the dragons were reacting to her. 

Diana was back to throwing up rabbits, but now it wasn't just in my bed it was everywhere. Jinx said it was a defense method, so we were close. They might have cloaked their camp though I should be able to smell something. I turned my ears away from her and towards Diana who was laying next to me. The other dragons were off on a hunting/scouting party. Caterina was making some kind of soup with a few of the plants around there that I recognized. It wouldn't be the tastiest thing, but it would keep us from dying of hunger out here. I got up. I needed to do something. 

I walked out of the camp and into the forest around us. The wind was strong today. Coming from behind me which would be serious problem for actual hunting, but I just needed a break from all the people in our camp. Hunting gave me that.

I dropped down onto all fours as I sniffed deeply at the dirt. Raccoons had come this way recently. Nasty creatures. I smelled again. A deer herd had passed by here about a day and a half ago. I liked deer a lot better then raccoons so that is what I started to track now. I stood up and felt my way to the closest tree. Not rubbed on, so this wasn't their normal range. Or was it the elk that did the rubbing on trees. I smelled deer though I know that. A deer herd on the move meant something was hunting them, but I didn't smell any of the usual. So that meant that they were being hunted by something bigger. In this area that meant Rogues. My ear flicked. Deer moved away from when they were hunted, so I just had to follow it find where they started. Then I could use it to find where the camp is.

I moved along the path though I almost lost it in spots. It had rained recently though before we arrived. Finally, I reached a meadow. A few tree stumps lined the outer ring. I tripped over two of them before I reached the clearing. The grass was short here. A lot shorter than the forest. They stayed here for a bit. It's a good place, too. So the Rogues were close to her. I asked Diana to come to me now. We could track it from here. I waited for a couple long moments before she settled down in front of me with several harsh flaps of her wings. I climbed on top of her and she took off again. The wind whipped around us. Diana sent me pictures of the world below us, but nothing looked like the Rogue camp or any type of camp. Finally, we had to turn around and go back to the camp. Caterina served up some stew to both of us. We went to bed and hoped that tomorrow wouldn't be as fruitless as today.

~Delta~

I looked around the camp. It was quickly set up, but most of it would hold. Nix was very good at setting up camps. It was probably one of the things they taught in hunter classes. Des was quite happy to have Nix teach her about hunting with traps. Aleksandr was taking to this quicker than I would have thought based on his prior actions. According to him, it was a lot like camping though I don't know what that was. Seraphine was hanging by the fire to keep it going.

I looked back down. I was holding a map of the surrounding area with the magic in it outlined in different colors. The chaos hot spots were marked with orange while the order magic was marked with blue. There were a few other colors though the key on the side was faded. Finris said that it was still good even though it was old. He made a joke about himself though I wasn't really in a joking mood at that moment. 

I looked up at the flapping of wings above me. It wasn't that unexpected as the Swamplands was Griffin territory before the King Novak war and had kept its population mostly stable. A girl landed on a branch above us. Nix and Seraphine moved to flank me on either side. The bounced down from the tree in a Jinx like manner. She was wearing a slate around her neck and a pouch tied around her waist. She pulled out a piece of chalk from the pouch. Another set of wings sounded and another girl landed on the branch. The girl in front of us looked up then waved happily. The girl in the tree growled. "Who are you," Tree Girl said.

I looked around the group. "I am Adelita, this is my brother Nicholas, his mate, Destiny, Aleksandr, and Seraphine." I made sure to point at each member as I said there name.

The girl on the ground started to scribble on the chalk board. "Pixie. Hex." She pointed up at the girl who continued to growl at us in a Volcanic manner.

"What are you doing here?" Hex looked at us as she fluttered down from the branch. The fire in front of us made her dragon like wings look like the blackness of void night. "This is our territory." She landed and her wings didn't stop twitching as she did so.

Pixie stared to write something on the chalk board before she turned it around for us to see. "Hex hungry angry." I flicked my ear. It wasn't like the Griffins not to have a grasp on language, especially one so close to the river border. That would mean something or someone hadn't taught her it until recently.

"I am not." Hex turned back to us. "What are you doing here?"

I looked around the group. Aleksandr had moved towards the fire and was currently poking at it with a small stick. Seraphine was next to him. Probably making sure the fire demon in it didn't get mad at Aleksandr for messing with it. Nix was standing next to Des as she went back to tinkering with a golden wire mechanism. I wasn't sure what it was. I turned back to Hex and Pixie. "The Empress sent us to check out-" Pixie and Hex shared a look that I didn't understand- "the magic spikes in the area." They breathed in together.

Hex looked back to us. "The Empress?"

I blinked at them. It wasn't too surprising for them not to know of it yet. Our dragons gave us a good method of exchanging information quickly, but the other clans didn't have that and the Swamplands were resistant to change of any sort. The Grasslands had a dragon for each territory though they tended to also be nomads for long years of their youth. The Desert Clan was all in one city. The River Clan was spread out, so information traveled at the speed of tails. The Forest Clan was the most likely to have technology for talking over long distances. They make a lot of stuff that we use. I don't know or care what the ice queens do. "The Empress of the Eternal Fields of Punishment and the Volcanic Plains." Pixie stepped back quickly, her hand clutching her writing board tightly. Hex stepped forward with her wings spread wide enough to block most of pixie from view.

This was a move I was familiar enough with to recognize the cause of it. They were Rouges though the scent was faded from around them. Probably kicked out a year ago. "What do you want with us?"

"Nothing." My tail flicked. "We are really just here to look for magical spikes." I did lie about who sent us though. Nothing I could do there.

Hex nodded then moved closer to us, sniffing the air around us. "Yeah." She stopped then looked at us confused. She said something in a language that shifted around me and hit my ear wrong. I was usually good at puzzling out the meaning of words, but I couldn't understand it. "Okay." She backed up. "Come with us. Blue will want to see you." I looked around at us. Nix shrugged and started packing everything up. Aleksandr put out the fire quickly. I helped Seraphine gather up the food. Before long, everything was back in packs and we were being lead through the forest by Hex and Pixie. Though Hex keep herself between us and Pixie as well as sneaking dark looks at us.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Mentions of paint balls at school and childhood abuse though it is only mentioned.

Hex led us to the house in the middle of the woods. A young hydra met us there. Pixie seemed to be friends with her as she gave her a nuzzle. Hex growled at it, but I didn't understand why. Probably a Rogue thing. Jinx and Nix snapped at me plenty of times when they were younger. Hex stopped and held the door open for us to walk through. The room was small. Almost too small for me. 

Most of the furniture in here was either new or thread bare old. That was strange. Griffin traders were very proud of their goods and wouldn't allow anything but the best of their ware to be sold. "Blue must have left."

"Yep. About a moon turn ago," the Hydra said. She had a high voice that just managed to avoid grating on my ear drums.

"What does that even mean?" Hex's wings flared and she gave them a good, hard flap.

"About a half hour or so," Nix said as he looked around the room. Hex sighed then went over to an unlit fireplace with a few good coals still going. She fanned and fed the fire until it was warm enough that I worried I was going to sweat myself into a puddle. Or at least, my pads were going to be soaked. Though it was surprising that the heat outside hadn't already made it oppressive in here. The Hydra walked across the floor to lay next to the fire; all of her head resting on her paws or on each other. She sighed loudly.

"We may have some soup leftover from last night." Hex looked at the black pot next to the fire. "Nope. It's gone. What are you going to do?" She shook her head then moved over to the beam on the wall. 

I turned my ears towards the door as it opened slowly. "Pixel said that you had a-" I turned my head to look at the Siren male. Dark plumage that hadn't been taken care of too well. Yellow beak and legs. I couldn't place his accent though. "Second time today that we have had company." His voice was deeper than Siren's usually had.

"Yeah. They said they were here to check on the magic surges finally." Hex sounded bitter about it.

"Ah. So you took them to me." He turned to me. "You are the pride leader?" I nodded. "Thought so. What is your name?"

"Adelita of Pride Domina." Something about my name was familiar to him though I couldn't tell exactly what it was. Probably the pride name. We were the lady's pride. "What is your name?"

"They call me Old Blue around here. Though I don't exactly know why." He moved closer to me. "You look similar to someone I know. Does the name Leah have any significance to you?"

I shook my head. "Not really. I have a couple of cousins with that name, but I have cousins with every name under the rainbow."

He nodded and a sadness darkened his eyes. "Yes. I would think so." He moved into the room. His wings dragging behind him slowly. "Now for the magic spikes around here. Most of the worst are around the falls and wings."

"Falls and Wings," Seraphine said slowly. "What are those?"

"The Falls are the local name for Nightlight's leap. It is a waterfall. Hence, the name. Now the wings are a cliff where young kits find their wings and fly for the first time. It is practically a rite of passage around here." He walked over to the fire and sat down while fluffing up his feathers. "I can show you where they are a minute. I need to get warmed up."

"It's hotter than a Louisiana summer out there. Though that may just be the fur." Aleksandr shuffled his feet against the floor.

"Yes, it is, but-"

"Sirens tend to have a hotter body temperature than Kanjis. It isn't usually noticeable unless it is cold or hot outside." I turned back to Old Blue. "Sorry."

"It is quite alright." He fluffed up again. "And you are right. We do run hotter than you." He stood up and looked around the room. "I'm ready to go. Hex, Pixie, are you coming with us?"

Pixie nodded. "If Pix is going, I'm going." Hex moved towards the door. Pixie picked up the Hydra and followed after Hex. Old Blue moved towards the door. We dropped our supplies and went with them.

It was slow going for most of the trip. Destiny would get caught on something and would have to get out. Aleksandr freaked out about a few harmless snakes that Old Blue made quick work of. Even I slowed us down once when a large spider landed on me. The good part of that is that I tapped into my magic. The bad part was that I didn't know how to control it, so I had to wait for it to die down. 

Finally, after all of this, we reached the falls. They weren't anything truly special. A small, shallow pond with a waterfall pouring into it. A rock cut the stream into two. Though what I considered strange was how the magic around it was dimmed. Not gone or buried, it was there, but different. Light feeling with a deepness I could sense under it, but not tap into. I looked around it, but nothing around it would account for the magic. "Strange thing, right?" I turned to Old Blue. He was staring up at the waterfall. "The magic changes around here. Though it's not as impressive as the storms we get brewing."

"What kind of storms?" Aleksandr's ears were pressed back and his eyes were wide with a panic I didn't understand. A fear of storms is a kit thing that you get over.

"Bad ones. Though the worst comes about when the chaos magic is high." Old Blue turned his head towards Aleksandr. "They change the world around you. Lightning strikes happen every minute. Trees come alive and murderous. Wind changes direction as if it means to eat you alive."

Hex hissed slowly out."That's just from the air. The ground goes out from under you at a second's notice. Grass turns to stone. Water turns to blood." I gulped as my mind conjured up images of blood baths. "Then to soup."

"That sounds," Aleksandr seemed to think over the word, "terrifying."

"It is. Though it is good that someone has come to check it out." She hissed again. "Very good." She looked up slowly. "I'm going to go find Pixel." She flared her wings and took off quickly.

"So this is where the magic surges mostly happen?" The cause must be around here somewhere. Though it could have drifted from something else. Large magic tends to have a wide area of influence and if you don't dispel it correctly, it tends to linger and corrupt like a shade. I shifted down to look at the sand around us. It was whitish, but not yellow like beach sand. I poked my tongue out to taste as that is what you did in this situation. I don't understand because it didn't taste like anything, but sand. I reached out with my magic, then I hit a wall. A hard wall that left me gasping as I pulled back my magic. Spots danced around my eyes and I kept breathing deeply to fight it off. Shield magic was uncommon enough that I had only met two people good enough to hold a shield. It was hard to cast and hold magic in an area for any time. Most magic was used quickly and most of the types of magic that wasn't is used mostly in rituals that involve many people. My head continued to throb slowly and the spots were disappearing now.

A wing and a couple of hands rested on my back. "Just breathe," Seraphine said. I was breathing. My annoyance spiked quickly and my tail started to lash.

"I," I had to breath in again to get the other word out,"am."

"Just like that," Old Blue said. Idiots. I continued until I could breath normally without spots in my vision. Though my magic had taken a slight bruise. I would need to eat soon. Large portions if they had it. I turned towards Nix.

"Come on, before we get turned into doves or something like that." I walked out of the clearing. Seraphine complained for a minute, but was quickly silenced. We made it back to Old Blue's house without much happening to us.  
~Hex~  
I loved the feel of the wind. Wings beating against it, soaring through it all. It felt like freedom and home mixed into one. I loved it even more when Pixie and Pixel flew with me. I don't understand why, but I was happy when I could see them. Make sure they were safe. Other than that strange need, there were a few other things that made me really happy. Extremely happy.

They are in the order they were discovered: fires of any size, lots of food which helps with the fire, and hunting. People tend to stay away after they discover this though I don't know why. Pixie liked to garden and read though Blue was still teaching her how to. He tried to teach me, but I didn't like it. Pixel was really good at knitting which was a surprise since we had to learn it through a book. Blue didn't have hands and no one around here wanted us around long enough to teach us anything. They thought we were cursed. But Blue took us in and is teaching us how to survive. Pixel thinks we were a substitute for his lost family, but he thought that about most everybody.

"It's pretty out tonight."I turned my head slightly as Pixel flew in beside me. He was looking away from me towards the rising moon. I flapped my wings harder.

"Yes, it is."

He nodded. "Pixie told me that we have guests." He flapped again. "Other than the Hydra she found."

"Yes." I kept my eyes forward.

"She also said it was bothering you."

Stupid sister and her gossip. Not even High Mother's punishment could stop her. "You are saying the risk of exposure isn't bothering you?" My wings beat faster against the air. "Our kind lives in fear, because of people like them."

"Like who?" He tilted his head then curled his wings to catch a burst of air. "What exposure? We are a normal flock roosting together."

"You know who. The Volcanic monsters."

He made a shark clicking sound. "They aren't monsters. That is just what High Mother wanted us to believe, so we wouldn't leave."

"Why would she do that?" High Mother loved all of us. It was the guards and priestess who had it out with us. She had told me so herself. I looked at Pixel. She had even accepted him when he went through the rite.

"To keep us. I have been reading some of Green's books when Blue and Red Garnet are out. They say that cult leaders use-"

"It wasn't a cult."

"Yes, it was. We checked off most of the boxes of a cult. The only real outlier is that we have survived past the death of our leader, but the swapping is probably the cause of that."

I hissed at him. We may have left to get Pixie help, but that doesn't mean that we should start betraying it. Even to each other. People could overhear. "Pixel."

"I know. I know. They got you to get to us." I hissed at him again. He blinked and hissed back at me. We continued that way for several minutes until I dropped down to get a drink from a river. Then I flapped up to meet him again. My wings were burning in all of the right places. Overexertion meant I didn't have to think about anything.

"Not true." I hissed at him again. He rolled over and flapped like that for a second then turned back over.

"It is true and you know it." 

I sniffed in slowly as I watched the clouds in front of us turn plaid. "Magic spike. Let's turn back." Pixel nodded and we turned back to our home.  
~Caterina~  
I was starting to get why Kalima liked Kieran so much. All of her friends were grouchy, loners as well. "And we are still no closer to finding the Rouge's camp." Keira accepted the bowl of soup I handed her while Lyra passed a bowl to Diana who gulped it down before I made the second bowl.

"We can always look again in the morning." I passed the bowl I made to Diana. "Evening. You know what I meant."

She nodded. "Yeah, we can and give them a chance to move camp."

"No one can move a whole temple in one night," Nix said as he took a bowl. "It is literally impossible." His tail was twitching.

"Portals." Keira sneezed then.

"What about them," Lyra said. She scratched at her neck. I wonder if she has fleas? Would we need to get her a flea dip for it or whatever the people here did for them? I poured Destiny a bowl of soup and handed it to her without spilling most of it. Lyra made herself a bowl then sat down. I made Diana her third bowl then made mine. I sat down next to Lyra.

"They could use portals to do it." She looked grumpier than usual. Though I hadn't spent much time with her aside from the past couple of days.

"No, they can't and you know it too." Nix sighed deeply then ate a spoonful of the soup.

"Why couldn't they?" I had to agree with Lyra's question. Magic seemed like it could do pretty much everything. Though I hadn't had much experience with it. I had left before I started magic study beyond not surging. Even then, it was more like kindergarten than actual magic.

"Portals require rituals. Several of them in fact though I haven't studied exactly which ones exactly, but even so. It needs a lot of magic in one place. People have suffered extreme burnout during it even with help."

"Burnout?" Like a light bulb, I thought.

Nix sighed. "Burnout is when you use more magic then you can replace it quickly. Extreme burnout can cause comas, large fires, and even death if they continue. You need to replace magic before either happens. It usually involves food and rest though some mages can channel magic from things they enjoy. Though that is the stuff of Archmagus."

Destiny snorted. "That's a fictional title invented during the Great Migration for entertainment." Her tail and ear flicked. "Though most titles come about from fiction. Queen Luna the Sixth of Petopia was involved in creating over sixty new titles during her reign. Most of them were for her army of bureaucrats and yes-women."

"That was just because her family overthrew her sister and had to make a new one. She even had to cull the army of her eldest sister's supporters." Nix ate another spoonful. "Though that was stupid. She would have ruled with her when she came of age."

"People seek power over others. It is a fact of life." Destiny picked up her bowl and tipped it back into her mouth.

"That's just the idiots with no duties," Keira said. "I never tried to overthrow Lady Erica yet."

"That's because you don't like people." Nix swirled his spoon around the bowl. Destiny set her bowl beside her. "And an upgrade would mean you would have to deal with them all the time."

"Grassland ladies don't actually do much more than make sure the laws are followed. Other than that, we just do festivals and all that." Keira snorted. "It's an easy job."

"Sounds easy." Destiny snorted and stood up. She walked over to the tent and came out a second later with a bunch of wires and metal. She moved her bowl over to the fire. Her magic was a light pinkish color with orange sparkles in it. I had not seen a magic color with sparkles before. Maybe, it was a crystal city thing. Lyra elbowed me in the ribs. Hard.

"Ow." I hissed at her and she hissed back. Meaner. Aleksandr was rubbing off on me. That sounded weird. I can't tell Lyra that I just thought that. She was already mad at me for some reason. Maybe, she was jealous. I would be jealous if she was staring at a pretty girl. Even if I was just working out her magic color. And she didn't need to worry. I love her. I nuzzled against her. Lyra growled at me, but let me do it. "I love you."

"I know you do." I leaned into her. She snorted. "You're fat."

"No, I'm not. I weigh the same one hundred sixty four that I have since I started ninth grade." Not exactly, but I haven't been to a real doctor in six months or so.

"Fine. You're heavy."

"No, I'm dead weight."

"Ugh." I turned my head towards Keira. She tossed her bowl as she stood up. "I'm leaving before you guys start mating in front of me." She moved around the fire and towards her tent."Yes, you do, Diana. It's gross."

"No, we are not." I snorted. I have better manners than that. Plus, I don't want my tail fur singed by the fire.

"Don't worry. She's just grumpy," Nix said with a wave of his hand as he put down his bowl. "I can clean up since you cooked?"

"Sounds good." He picked up the bowls and left quickly.

"Well, you can certainly clear a room." Lyra snorted with laughter at her own joke. I moved my tail over hers as I nuzzled against her. 

"And I didn't have beans this time." I laughed now.

"No, that was Aleksandr." I laughed as Lyra moved in closer to me. "And it was enchiladas day." I smiled at her.

"That still wasn't as bad as picture day."

"Which one? Sixth year's mud bath or eight grade's paint balloon day or last year's Picasso food fight?"

"It's the universe telling us not to wear nice clothes." I breathed in before I continued with my punchline. "Or your brother's sick sense of humor."

"Only the mud bath was Aleksandr's fault and even that was an accident. Though Charles's daddy issues contributed to paint ball day." Hyena's had weird values in a mate. Though we never saw him much after he started drinking badly.

"Yeah. An inferiority complex mixed with his budging anger issues and we are lucky it was just paintballs." Though where he got them, I will never know.

"Don't be morbid. We don't have the capability for that level of betrayal."

"We aren't." I pointed between us. "He probably was at that point."

"That's why they put him in therapy." Lyra growled at me then stood up. "I'm going to bed now. If you want to come, come with me." I stood up and followed after her. My ears were pressed down. She settled down with her back to me and I turned away from her. I laid in silence until I fell asleep.  
~Lyra~  
Thoughts ran through my head long after Caterina had drifted off in sleep. I felt horrible about how I reacted to her joke. Though I will admit it was in horrible taste. That didn't mean that I didn't react badly to it. She was so understanding and sweet and what did I do to her? I growled at her for one bad move. What did that make me? A bad girlfriend that is what it made me. 

I stood up, careful not to disturb Caterina's rest, and walked outside. Destiny was still working on her machine thing. I couldn't tell what she was building though. "So you couldn't sleep after you had a fight with your girl?"

I look towards Destiny. Caterina was right to stare at her. She was gorgeous. Shiny fur and strong magic. What else could you want in a mate? "Yes."

"There's not much I can do about that. Nix and I haven't got to our first real fight yet." She was striking something with a small hammer. I moved closer and sat down to watch her work. "Though I can listen if you want."

"Not much to tell. She made a joke and I overreacted." That was exactly what happened. Nothing more and not less.

"About the kit with bad parents?" I nodded. "Ah, I didn't see anything wrong with it, but that might be a cultural thing that I don't get." She turned to me and picked a pair of tweezers.

"Yes." I nodded. It was too much for her to understand in any conversation. My ears pressed down.

"Well, if you won't tell me then do you want to hear about how I meet Nix? That will get your mind off of your troubles."

"Sure." I shifted in my seat.

"It was a summer night or was it spring?" She lifted her tweezers then shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Anyway, I meet this little wisp of a girl. Not even, Jinx's weight then."

"Girl?" My mind stalled then as I thought over that.

"Yep." She cocked her head while she looked at me. "You don't know?" I shook my head. "Wow, it's been a while since I met anyone who didn't know. It caused some weird feelings before he was given a gender change stone. Though I like him just fine back then." She smiled at me.

"I bet you did."

She nodded. "Of course. He was very sweet. A little awkward, but nevertheless, he was sweet. Mother loved that I found a friend." She flicked her tail as she moved closer to lift up a gold plated wire. At least, I think it was plated. I'm not really good with machinery. That was Uncle Jacob and Aunt Rebecca's thing not mine. "Of course, he was caught up in quite a net. Said he wanted to explore." She laughed. "That was the best thing, I had ever heard at that moment, so I cut him loose. I lost that net, but I met him so it was fair trade."

"So you and him got together, because he wanted to explore a castle?"

She nodded. "Of course." She sniped the wire then moved it to the other spot in the machine. Not sure if that was how it actually worked, but that is what I saw. "Best day of my life." She looked towards me. "So you and Caterina are fighting over a joke, yes?"

"Yes." I nodded. It sounded stupid when she put it like that.

"And you feel that you overreacted?"

"Yes."

"Then talk to her." It sounded so easy when she said it. Emotions had never come easy for me. That's why I had fought with her a lot during puberty. She made me feel things that I wasn't sure I liked.

"It's not that simple."

"Yes, it is. She likes you, so she will listen. Now as much as I enjoyed our talk, I need to get some sleep before I end up getting Marshmallow wonderland rather than Metal maze explorer."

"What?"

"My dreams. Both are cool, but I drool during the marshmallow one, so I prefer the metal maze."

"I snore. Loudly."

She set down her tools. "I know. I could hear you yesterday when we made camp."

I shrugged. "It's better than dying from insomnia."

"You can't die from that."

"Yes, you can. The body needs sleep to repair itself. Wait long enough and it will shut down on you." I had watched my fair share of medical shows with Grampy as well as crime shows with Nona. Though that one had come from Race to the Edge after Aleksandr annoyed me into researching it.

"Huh. Well, I need my sleep." She turned and went to her tent. I went back to mine and laid down. Caterina hadn't moved since I had left. In fact, I had to poke her to make sure she was alive and hadn't been replaced by a lump of wood. Enchanted wood, it would have to be to look like her.

I fluffed my pillow and laid there until I fell asleep. It didn’t happen quickly, but it happened. I was woken up by Caterina snoring in my ear. She was curled up against my back with her face on my neck. The tent wall was bright out, so it must have been daytime. I sighed and pulled away from her. She groaned. I pushed on her until she woke up. "What?" She whipped sleep from her eyes.

"You woke me up with your snoring."

"I don't snore."

"Yes, you do. It sounded like an inverted wood chipper."

"You don't even know what that is."

"Do you?"

"No."

"Well, neither do I. I heard it on an episode of one of the CSIs, I think."

"The maggot episode?" I nodded. I remember that there were maggots involved. "The original then."

"Probably. I don't remember." Could be.

Caterina moved closer to me. "Look, I'm sorry." She nuzzled against me. "For the Charlie thing."

"No, it was my fault. I overreacted." I nuzzled against her.

"Yeah, it is." Caterina laughed. I leaned into her shoulder. "Okay, okay. It is both our fault." I laughed too. We were back to normal. It made me feel happy. "Come on, let's go back to bed." She and I laid back down. Her tail was around my waist and my arm was around her back. We laid there for a while until we fell asleep again.

A loud thump and a roar woke me up though if it hadn't then Caterina's drool would have in a minute. I wiggled out of her arms and sat up. I opened the flap to see Diana and a large purple dragon yelling at each other. Before I blinked the sleep out of my eyes, Diana roared again and Caterina started up. "Monkey diamond mommy."

I turned to her as she looked around the tent in confusion. "What was that about?"

She turned to me with wide eyes. "I don't know." She shook her head from side to side quickly. "I can't remember now."

I sighed. "Well, Diana is definitely better than an alarm clock." It was twilight now though the light was fading fast enough without the moon.

"Yeah." Caterina got up and walked over to me. "Huh, Nya is back."

"That's who that is?"

Caterina turned to me and rolled her eyes. "You are just as bad as Kalima is."

"Well, excuse me, all dragons look alike. It's like dwarfs." I pointed in two places. "The fantasy kind, not the, you know, real people. Though I haven't met a real person with dwarfism, so I can't be completely sure. I am eighty five percent sure that they don't though."

Caterina laughed. "You are cute when you babble."

"Does that mean that Aleksandr is cute all of the time?" I laughed as she made a face.

"Ew, no." She snorted. "Though that might be just because I like girls though. Straight people might think differently."

"Don't look at me. He's my brother." No one looks cute to their sibling.

Caterina shrugged. "I don't have any siblings, so I can't tell."

"Ah, you are going to break Aleksandr's fragile little heart. He thinks of you as his sister. Hell, I think he started planning our wedding before you did." I laughed as I remembered Caterina chasing me around the playground in a pink princess dress yelling about leaving her at the altar. Though I wasn't even told about it before it happened, so how it was my fault I will never know. Even Aleksandr was mad at me for wasting his reception dinner. Though it had worms, so I wasn't going to eat it anyway.

"Yes, he was actually really good at it." She bumped against me. "Even if you ditched us to hang out with Even and his ants."

"Hey, you could have joined us at any time. He let me feed them, so it was cool."

Caterina snorted. "Yeah, only you could think it was cool."

"It was." She didn't mean anything by it. I know that. She had even helped us bring them food at times. Though we did get bitten a couple of times, it was all in good fun. Though it turns out Zoe was allergic to ant bites though that wasn't our fault as even she didn't know until then. Thankfully, it was mild and not life threatening or we would have been in a lot of trouble. She did get to go home though. And she beat me at dodgeball that week, so she got her revenge for it. It stung my pride, but I understood.

"I wonder what they are saying?"

"Huh?" Caterina gestured where Nya and Diana were still arguing. "I don't know. I don't speak dragonese."

"Is that really what the language is called?"

"I don't know that either. I just picked the first word that came to mind."

Caterina nodded. "Did you think that Dragons used to have an animalist religion before they started to soul bond with the volcanic people?" She waved her tail. "It turned into the current worship in the volcanic people that you see today." She snorted. "Though it never said what exactly they worshiped before. Griffins have their mountain gods, the sirens have the planets and wind, Mer worships the tides and bones, the forest clan have their badgers. It's all in my books, but the dragon religion was never written down. It was told through stories that are now lost." I moved closer to her as she looked sad now. It wasn't nice to think about, but sometimes you had to lose a little of the past in order to move into the future.

"They probably couldn't write it down." Talons weren't very useful to hold a quill or any writing utensil in fact.

"Yeah, but it's sad to think about." She moved closer to me and curled around me with a purr. How do you do that? I tried, but it came out more as a growl. "What, are you constipated?"

"No." I started to blush. At least here, my fur was the same color as my blush so it wouldn't show. Though I hadn't actually seen anyone blush here. Could they blush? What was the science behind this? I need to see a library soon or I am going to set up cell phone reception here. Not sure how I could do it, but I would. But before that, I would need to find a plug in to charge my phone. Then I was going to play angry birds for at least an hour. Possibly more. It had been a really long time since I had last played it.

My tail flicked. "Oh, really." Caterina stood up as Keira walked out of her tent in a huff followed quickly by Destiny and Nix. A small dragon bounced after her. I hadn't seen that dragon before. She was smaller than even Sora was with pink skin with no visible scales and no horns. She chirped and climbed up to Destiny's shoulder. They talked for several minutes before Diana flew off somewhere with Nya. I dug through my backpack until I found one of my books. I read until they got back and Keira demanded that we pack up. Apparently, Nya had found a more secure place for us. Even though we needed to go over the border to the Icy Mountains to meet some people.  
~Kalima~  
Kieran made dinner for us before he left to meet with Ink Drop. Ayala made small talk as we ate. When we were finished, she started working on her newest project. A red skirt with golden sticking on it. She was currently working on a flock of songbirds with small music notes coming out of their mouth. Occasionally, she would growl and pull up some of the stitches. I kept my nose buried in my Queen Diana book so I wouldn't disturb anyone before we left tomorrow. Ayala just seemed grumpy.

I just made it to the part where she fought against a shadow herd of buffalo when Kieran walked back in looking embarrassed. "So how was the visit?"

"Eh, it had its highs and lows." His tail twitched as he walked over to us and sat down. He ruffled through his stuff until he found the book he had been reading. I turned back to my book. My tail was curled around me. Sora walked into the room with Kottr following after her slowly. Both were folding onto a gem of large size and vibrant color. Sora's gem was purple in color while Kottr's was a deep blue. They walked over to their small packs and put the gem inside. They then walked over to the bed rolls and started whispering and giggling to each other. 

'Hello, little love doves.' Ayala had a light laugh in her words. I had never ever heard that phrase before. Maybe, it was a Volcanic thing.

'Hello, Miss Lala,' Sora said. Kottr nodded and laid his head down then wrapped his tail around himself. Sora rolled her shoulders slowly then churred as she bumped against Kottr. He pushed back and before long they were rolling around on the ground, growling and purring. Kottr won with a pin and bite while Sora got in a few good scratches on him.

"Settle down. We have a long trip ahead of us tomorrow," Kieran said. The two dragons broke apart then turned towards each other with happy sounding chirps that I couldn't translate easily. Probably, some love-sick words. They were cute together, but it was almost sickeningly cute. Very annoying to have in your head twenty-four-seven. Especially when Sora started projecting it onto me when I was trying to sleep. Now, most of Delta's grumbling makes a lot more sense.

I pushed my thoughts away from that and back towards my book. The sun rose soon after and I retired to my sleeping place until that night. Though my dramatic thought made Sora laugh.

My sleep was filled with weird dreams with bright colors and nonsensical plots. There was a rat late for dinner and a mouse who wanted tea with cat cream. I had to get them to where they were going though I didn't know why. I woke up confused and impatient for something I didn't even know. During breakfast, I snapped at both Kieran and Ayala. She and I got into an argument that left me hurting inside deeply, so I left the tent. Kieran didn't follow after me which annoyed me, but I couldn't have expected him to.

Finally, after I wandered around the camp for at least an hour I ran into Basil, Bluebell, and Rosie. I had trouble telling Bluebell and Rosie apart. They were wearing almost the exact same dress and both had their hair braided loosely. Basil sent them along on some mission form Grandmother Helen.

Basil led me through the camp to where Keira's family had set up their houses. They were almost exactly alike the others aside from the large number of children playing around it in large clumps. A few of the older ones were practicing hunting while the younger one were pouncing or playing with dolls and horse figurines. Basil led me past three tents before he led me into one. Three older women looked up from their game as we walked in while one looked up from her book and the other from her knitting as they sat by the back wall. The oldest stood up and regarded me with a look. "Well, Basil, you didn't mention you would be bringing company. And where are your sisters?"

"It was a last second change. Bluebell and Rosie went on to get the carrots for soup tonight."

One of the ladies started to push a stone forward, but the oldest gave her a harsh swat and moved it back. "Leah, don't cheat."

"I wasn't cheating." Leah dropped her Ts and Gs while she was speaking and drew out her Is.

"Yes, you were. You are a terrible cheat," one of the other ladies said as she set aside her book and leaned forward like a hyena after scraps.

"Nettie," the oldest said sharply. "Don't antagonize our sister." 

"Sorry, Theresa." Nettie picked back up her book.

Theresa sighed. "Go check on Helen and the soup. I wouldn't put it past her senile as-" She looked towards Basil-"caboose to put soap in it."

"That's isn't what you were going to say," Nettie said with a cackle. Theresa glared at her and she stood up with a huff. "Fine, going to make my old bones break with all this work."

"My bones are much older than yours and I do a lot more work, so get a move on." Theresa glared at her. Nettie walked out of the tent. "Sorry about that, Kalima. She is going through her last heat now." She shook her head. "Our mamas had her much too late. We had already picked and abducted our mate before she was even born."

The grasslands have a tradition of husband capturing that lead back into the days when it was still part of the Volcanic empire. It was mostly formalities now though. Makes it more fun they say. "That would make anyone grumpy."

"Yes and Morpheus is away now, so she is suffering alone." She tutted lightly. "With the new huntresses now. They are scouting around for a good mate." She sighed. "They are going to have to break up their ranks ,of course, between the litters. There are simply too many for one or even two now."

"Natalia is leaning towards Daniel. Though Flicker wants Mathew." Basil sighed. "It is a hard choice for them. Neither is going to back down."

"And we can't split the family in the same litter. It just isn't done," The lady with the knitting put it down now and looked around at us. "They will have to choose."

"I hope they go with Danial. Good family and that swamplands strength will be very useful at the farm."

"Well, they better pick soon. The festival is over tomorrow evening and we won't be able to announce our intentions," Daisy said as she walked into the tent. I knew it was her, because she always dressed in bright yellow. "I can't wait another year to find our mate. I mean, the older ones are already working on their territory now. I want to-"

"We are thankful for what every harvest provides, Daisy May, and we do not complain about it. It does nothing, but p-" once again she looked at Basil-"makes the goddess mad."

"Yes, Grandmother." She looked down.

"Now, go tend to your siblings. We don't need another silver shovel incident." Daisy walked out of the room quickly. Then she turned to me. "Have you found yourself a mate?"

"Yes." At least, we were working up to that.

"Good. A queen needs an heir as quick as possible. Don't want to relive your great grandmother's folly." She clucked. Actually clucked like a chicken. "Only leaving a boy to rule a kingdom. What was she thinking?"

"Grandfather was a good enough ruler."

"He was weak and allowed the clans too much room. The Icy Mountains wasn't nearly as bad back then, but you can't give them even an inch, because they will go a mile with it." She stared me down. "Find yourself a good mate to raise your kits and be a strong queen. Your mother is a strong queen, but she gives too much favoritism to the Volcanic Plains."

Not the first or the worst complaint I had heard about Mother's reign. "That is where Dad is from."

She nodded. "And that gives them a lot of influence in court. Though the Riverclan was just as favored back in Prince Mathew's court. Though your mother seems to put them on the outs now." I had noticed that she didn't like Aunt Serena, but even so. She didn't allow it to affect her ruling about it. She turned to smile at Basil. "Though Basil will be happy enough there."

"Yes, I will. Though Flora is waiting until the actual wedding for the abduction." Basil rolled his eyes with a good-natured purr. "I don't see why, but those fancy court types have different standards then us in the 'lands."

She turned to look at me. "How long before you abduct your boy?" She blinked. "It is a boy? It is very hard to keep tradition when it's a girl. I remember my sister, Penelope, was against any boy we found. Very hard to get her to agree, but finally, Millie found out why. She was going to shag one of the farm helpers at dawn. Caused a huge scandal in the family, but they are happy now. Got themselves a litter going." She smiled. "We had to split the family, of course, we don't want anyone to get something. Though they seem to be clean. It's been over two hundred years, so whatever they got, it isn't going to kill them."

Basil snorted. "Though the Volcanic Plains has made most of those diseases mute now."

"During Commander Keytain's reign." Delta had mentioned that to me a lot. A lot.

"Yes. Though we got off topic. You ain't going to make us wait for another royal wedding too long, are you? Because I am getting old, so I want to see the country in good hands before I do."

Mother was still young and healthy, so I would even get the throne for six, seven hundred years now. I might even pass it down to my grandchild before I do or one of my grandnieces. My siblings were bound to have at least one. "I can't say. I just found him, so we are still working out all the details."

"Ah, well, that will have to do for now. But you got enough Volcanic in you anyhow. You will give us a good heir."

I was starting to feel like a horse. "Grandmothers, she must be tired, so I'll escort her back to her tent." I was getting a little overwhelmed with the prying, but that is what grandparents did. Basil to my elbow and lead me out through the chaos. One of the girls threw a toy at me, but I didn't take it personally. Soon we left them behind and lost ourselves in the bustle of the camp. Though we made it back to the tent in what I assume was record time. I didn't have a watch on me. Basil and I parted when we reached it and I walked inside to find most of it already packed up into boxes pushed against the wall. Sora and Kottr were sprawled out on a blanket. Ayala was moving through the room picking up things and putting them in other boxes next to her. Kieran was picking up books and grumbling. I helped them and quickly enough the inside was bare aside from Kottr and Sora's blanket.

Kieran left to hire a dragon caravan to get us to the Icy Mountain by tomorrow. It didn't seem like it would be a long trip though. Maybe, three hours or so according to one of my old teacher's maps. Mother said that I would restart lessons later on though they would be more hands on then research now. I was kind of looking forward to it. Even if it meant taking time away from people for a while. Ayala was pointedly ignoring me, so I dug out my book and continued reading it. She grabbed some of her fabric and started working on it. "I'm sorry that I yelled at you." Pinkie looked at me then bumped against Ayala who looked up.

'No problem. We are all under a lot of stress right now.' Pinkie chirped and laid down on her shoulder. I nodded and went back to my book. She went back to her embroidering and we both waited for Kieran to get back with the caravan. Sora looked up at me. She stood up and stretched herself upwards.

I made it to the Lightning Strike game when Kieran was back. "I got us three dragons for this afternoon."

"Don't we need four?"

Kieran looked confused for a minute before he shook his head. "No, Ink Drop will provide his own transportation."

"Okay." I stood up, closed my book after I marked my page, and helped them to load all of our packages onto our new dragons. Before long, it was finished and we took flight to the Icy Mountains with Sora and Kottr following after us.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had intended to get this chapter up a few days ago, so that it would be ready after two weeks, but my computer was freaking out. It wouldn't turn on, but I got it to come back on to finish the chapter. Thankfully, it was already mostly done. Thirty pages later. Hope you enjoy it.

The Icy Mountains was beautiful this time of year. The flowers were blooming out in the guardians, the farmers's fields were ready for picking though it did seem rather strange that they were ready so early in the year, and the whole place sparkled like a diamond. Or rather a palace made of diamonds as the case would be. At least that is what it looked like it was made of, I had not really gotten into architecture much. It was not my thing. Nix probably would know though. He was really good at it. "Where should we land?" I made sure to echo it through Sora to Kottr and Pinkie to make sure both of them heard me even at this height. 

Kieran looked around the area before he pointed at a wide courtyard with a fountain in the center. "How about there?" The dragons turned into a lightly swooping dive before they flapped lightly down to the ground. Ink Drop looked up from his book as he sat on the fountain.

"Well, it sure took you long enough to get here."

I smiled as best I could. "Sorry. We hit a herd of Ice Trolls." Loud and stinking creatures. Nearly got us, too, but Ayala managed to save the day with a hand made flame thrower.

"Ah, they have been very active this year, but the Silver Wings have been called in so they should be settled soon." His accent had changed now. More Ice Queen, less like what it had been before.

"They are still around?"

Ink Drop laughed as he got up from the fountain. "Yep. Most of them died out though during a blizzard a couple years back, so they have been doing a lot of recruiting." Kieran nodded. "Mostly from the farms though as the court can't be bothered to spare a few guardswomen." Warriors in the Icy Mountains? Now that was good for a laugh. Though it was strange that he would specify gender. All the guards I had meet were females. Was that not the case here? Strange place, this was. My tail started twitching quickly as I looked around. There were four gleaming building around the courtyard. All of the walls close to us were made of glass while the roof seemed to be made of white marble. Might be something different, but that was the only white building material I know. A few bushes of red flowers lined with small bunches of purple, black, and yellow flowers. "This is the Rose Academy for the Gifted. An old friend of my family started it back in the day." I turned back to Ink Drop who was looking up at the building in front of us with a sad expression.

"Though it was a lot smaller then. We had six classrooms and weekly field trips."

"That was how we liked it though." Ink Drop flicked his tail then. I blinked as I looked around for the rest of them. They were no where to be seen. "What? Do I have a bug on my muzzle?"

"Where's your other tails?"

He flicked his tail again. "I put an illusion on them. Though I would think a Volcanic girl would be able to see through it." Ayala was feeling confused though she did not put it in words. Pinkie was not one to hold much back from us, but not to Jinx's level thankfully. There can be only one of her.

"My dad is from there. I am not." My mother's side of our family had ties to most of the clans through blood and marriage. I could even trace it to the old world monarchy though most of that was circumstantial. Though a few stud books still exist from the early ages. Mostly Volcanic records that the Teacup Dragons would not let any one go near. Though Rose Quartz would brag for hours of her lineage and her family. Very proud. Mama dragons and all that.

"And my ma was a wind mage and my pa was a chaos caster, but I control water. Mostly ice though I can control water well enough."

I have no idea what that meant, but it seemed like he was trying to bond with me over it. I am not that sure, but it was possible. Kottr cooed softly. I turned to him as he looked embarrassed at me, but Sora laughed shrilly. 'Kottr and I are going to explore.' She tilted her wings as she extended then before she moved to prance off.

"You might not want to do that. The Academy is safe enough, but the court can get pretty dicey."

"They are like Dead Man Jones," Kottr said as he looked towards Kieran?

"Who?"

"No, it's an expression."

"So they don't like to play? Who would want to live like that." Kottr turned to Sora. She nodded.

"That is just dumb. They are stupid."

"That was redundant," I said. Sora stuck out her tongue at me. I glanced around and stuck my tongue out at her. She blinked and chirped.

"Who's Dead Man Jones?" Ink Drop looks towards me. I shrugged since I had no idea what it was.

"It's a dice game that my sister invented."

"Which sister?" He had eight of them. Or was it nine? I cannot remember.

"Jackie."

"Ah. During your imprisonment?" I pressed my ears back for a minute as I glanced back at Kieran who had a blank expression. I looked around the courtyard again. Not even a leaf stirred in a breeze had changed from the last time. "Sorry."

"It is fine." My tail flicked across Kieran's slowly. At least, I hoped it was Kieran or I was going to have an awkward conversation with Ayala later. She would tell me though if I was on her tail or at least, I hope so. I do not really know her that well. I do not know many people that well. And now, I have made myself sad.

"Well, let me show you to where you will be staying. It is just off campus and close to my house." He moved away from the fountain and gestured for us to follow after him. Kieran walked next to me while Ayala followed behind us with Kottr, Sora, and Pinkie in tow.

'Why is he staying so close to school?' Ayala's hands moved as she spoke the words. 'Should we tell someone?'

"I'm a sub teacher for most of the classes. Well, one of many. It gives me something to do while I am here besides play the court game. Though I am pushing for the political science position when Lady Windmere retires." That was a strange name. I wonder where she is from? I had not heard of her before though so she must be from one of the small domains. Probably one of countless in Zonyia or Petopia.

'Okay, now I am even more worried.' Her thoughts had an edge of laughter to them.

"Sub as in substitute. Not the other kind."

Ayala made a sound in the back of her throat that I think was meant as a affirmative noise. 'Sure.' Pinkie laughed shortly as she looked around at us. The grass was trimmed lowly and the building stretched along in front of us. A few windows dotted here and there, but it was mostly white walls.

"This is the four main halls, but we offer over a thousand classes. Some have to be held away from them such as alchemy, spell casting, and gardening." Ink Drop sounded like he said the words often and had removed all but the most distant of meanings from the words. "Geology is also away from the main halls in its advanced stages. It can get pretty dicey."

'Used correctly this time.'

"It was used correctly last time."

'No, it wasn't,' Sora said. Her tail moved as she walked. You know, she was getting bigger now. Almost to Ryu's size now. Though I have not seen him in a while, he must be nearly double his size. I wonder where he is? Probably back in the Volcanic Plains. Most of the dragons tend to have a fondness for the land there.

"If you look to your left," I did so," you will see Whitetail park and museum." Ooh, a museum. We would have to go check that out later. "To your right is the newly remodeled Rose Pines Library. One of six on campus. Focused on family histories. Named after the famous Griffiness Explorer, Rose Pines of Falcon's leap." Never heard of her. She was probably a Ice Queen that had not do much at all.

"That's new. We just had a classroom swap program."

"Well, we would've had more if Carl Jr and Sarah hadn't ratted us out." Ink Drop flicked his tail. The grass was growing longer the farther we walked. The wall had ended a little while ago, but I could see houses in the distance. They looked rather small and kind of blurry. Must be all this sun. We were not meant to be around all this white stuff and sun at the same time. It was murder on the eyes. I do not know how Ice Queens handled all this. Probably only came out at night like sensible people. I can not believe that I thought the words sensible and Ice Queen together. Well, I implied that they went together which might have been worse.

"Most of them are nocturnal, too, though there is always the few insomniacs." I turned to look at Kieran who gestured to Kottr.

"That's why we have thirty coffee stores over campus. Though we have only ten bathrooms, so it balances its self out." We had four at the palace. Though it was hard to get in it when Keira's family visits. Mother talked about adding more, but she never does.

Ink Drop lead us down another trail that split off from the main pathway. We walked for several minutes before we reached a reasonably sized house. As he was the first one there, Ink Drop was the one to open the door. The inside was small with a brown table in the middle, two blue pillows that matched the walls and floors, and moonstones placed around the place to give it a soft glow. This was a murder cabin. I could just feel it. It had the energy of one. "Welcome to Palese Di Castle."

"That was just castle twice in a cheesy accent."

"No, it wasn't. It was palace and castle in a cool accent."

"Whatever you got to tell yourself."

Ayala made a sharp gesture and walked past us into the room followed by the dragons. Sora and Kottr sat across from each other at the table. They started whispering and chitter in dragon language that our bond left untranslated. 'I'm going to pick my room.'

"Okay," I said. Not sure what else to say. It was not like she needed my permission to do so. As long as I did not get murdered here, I would be happy. I wonder it there was a ghost here? Do those exist? I have not seen one, but I had not seen a god until I meet Bastet and I believed in them then. "Do you know if ghosts exists?"

Kieran looked around the room. "Some become ghosts, but it is rare."

"It used to be, but they have increased their population in recent years. Though most of them hang around the Rouge camp now, so we can't do too much about them." Ink Drop was staring at Sora and Kottr. "Most of them are good conversationalists."

"You talk to the earthbound ones?" Kieran sounded like this was the worst thing he had ever heard.

"Yes. You talk to the one in your fancy city."

"Yeah and they are controlled there. Not free to wonder about and possess people." Kieran made a hand gesture.

I was starting to feel uncomfortable about standing by them. "I am going to get my stuff settled." I moved over to our dragons and pulled my stuff from the largest one's back. I shifted my grip on it until I felt like it was good enough. He grunted and moved his back into a stretch.

'Thank Artemis. My back was getting sore.' He had a deep voice that sounded mostly like a growl. He was a dark bronze color that reminded me of Eona though his scales was darker than hers.

'Your back is sore, because you and Circle were going at it last night.' The female raised her blue head up and glared at him with a haughty expression. She had a light voice and an dark orange tongue that she flicked out at random.

'Oh, can it.' The other female was a deep purple with a pink underbelly and underwings. Her voice was angry, almost belligerent in tone. "You two should just get it over with and-'

'There are hatchlings present, Violet.' Violet, who I assumed to be the purple one, hissed at him. He growled at her.

'They are going to have to find out at some point. Better now then when she pops out an egg.'

'Just because you make an egg, doesn't mean its going to hatch.' The blue female whipped her tail around to strike the bronze male.

'Tack, Adonis, tack.'

'Oh, yes, mistress.' The male's voice was laced with harsh sarcasm. I shift my luggage. I have to put this down soon or I was going to drop it. I turned around and walked past a still arguing Ink Drop and Kieran into the living room. I turned the door knob with my magic and pulled it towards me.

I walked inside of a tiny hallway painted an orange color that clashed with the bright primary colors of the doors. The one closest to me was painted bright red, the next one a little farther down on the opposite wall was painted yellow, and the final door at the end of the hall was painted blue. I made sure not to touch anything I did not have to in the hallway including the door. I chose the blue door and opened it again with my magic. No need getting dirty or sick from the from an unclean knob.

The room was small, painted a light blue with white curtains on the tiny window in back. It had a cot to the side of the window with a potted plant on the white table next to it. A book case was on the other side of the window. A brown chair that looked like someone had weaved it was next to me in the door way. A small, threadbare white rug was between the bed and the bookcase. I set down my luggage then moved to the bed. The room is clean if a little on the poor side. 

"It is only for a few days." I had to keep reminding myself of this fact. I kicked the door closed then turned to my luggage. Nothing to do and nothing I really wanted to do now. I glanced between the bed and chair now. The bed looked clean enough so I grabbed one of my books then sat down on the bed.

A knock sounded on my door later though I could not tell how later. I had read fifty more pages though. "Come in." The door squeaked and Kieran walked in. He looked around for a minute.

"It looks just like my room. Only in blue and white."

Made sense. This already felt like I had reached rock bottom. "Yeah." Kieran nodded then looked at the book case. He pulled one of the books off and turned to to look at the title.

"Castle from the Cliff: A story of how one girl saved a nation. Sounds fascinating."

"I did not really check out the bookshelf."

Kieran nodded then put the book back. "They aren't really that exciting."

"Do you want something?" I was not trying to be rude, but I had just gotten to the really interesting part when he knocked.

"Just wanted to see how you were faring." Kieran shrugged. "It is a bit of a shock to get here and see this instead of the splendor of the court."

"It is kind of," I struggled to find a word,"ill provided for compared to what I am used to."

Kieran nodded, "Tell me about it. My first night here, I would have sworn that I would get a disease from every one of the loose springs." He snorted. "Eventually, I got a better bed, but it was a tough few weeks."

"That sounds-" I thought over each possible word-"terrible.

"It was." His ear flicked. "Ayala's room isn't much better, so we can't trade."

I blinked. "Did you come in here to see if my room was better to make a trade for it?"

He shrugged. "Something like that."

"Well, my room is bad."

"I know."

"Really bad."

Kieran glanced around the room. "Want to go to sanctuary?"

He said it like it was the name of a secret club. It was exciting. No one let me into their secret club when I was younger. Mostly Allister since Keira and Delta though it was a stupid idea and majority rules in our group. Any group I guess. Though how were we going to get there? "How?"

"Uh," Kieran looked around. "Fin said to make a door, so I guess we do it like Beetlejuice."

"What is that?"

"It's a movie."

"Oh, okay." I had seen a couple movies though I still got lost sometime when Seraphine and Kieran got into arguments and started making comments. Though I guess that is how he felt when Fay and I got deep into one of our Queen Diana discussions. "I still don't know what we are supposed to do."

Kieran moved towards the wall and ran his hand over it. A glowing gold line appeared and he produced a door. He made a circle for the doorknob then opened it to the sanctuary. I moved over to the door while he walked forward. The room was cleaner now. Kieran looked to me as I stepped into it. "Ta-da."

"How are we going to explain that to whoever owns the house?"

"No one owns the house. It's owned by the university and if they ask we just tell them it was there when we got here. And if that doesn't work, we tell them it was champion business. They can't be mad then."

"And if that does not work, then we call in your mother."

"Better go with yours. Mine has a tendency to blast first and ask questions later."

So does mine, but she was not able to travel. Better go with Set."Or we call your dad."

"That one is better." Kieran pointed towards me. I looked around. Where was Fay and Sofia and that wolf guy? What was his name? Oh, yeah. Fin like a fish. They were probably in one of the rooms around here. Which one was the question here.

"Do you know where Fay is?"

"No." He looked around. "But she should be around here somewhere." He moved forward. I grabbed his hand. "What?"

"It could be like Blueblood."

"What?" Blood was red. Not blue. Though it could be a name. A really dumb name.

"He killed his wives and disposed of them in a room so that when his new wife stumbled into the room he killed them." Not all of it, but it was an accurate summery of the story.

"So you are worried we are going to find the disposed of bodies of his past lovers?"

"Yes." Flashes of thoughts centered around that idea filled my head as I looked around. The shadows seemed to grow dark and reach towards us as if to drag us off to the netherworld. Was that even a place? I do not know, but it should be. When I was queen, I was going to name a colony that.

"Okay." Kieran looked around. "It seems pretty safe in here."

"Yes, in here." I focused on several small details of the room. The stone of the chair nearest me had a jagged crack in its back, a few of the stone in the floor were a slightly different color then the rest, a rather large spider had decided to make its home in the ceiling. We would have to remove it before we allowed Delta to return.

"If we go together then I am pretty sure we can take him." What was he saying? Right finding our friends in here.

"Okay," I stayed close to him as we moved around the table. A door squeaked open from beside us. I turned to us. Sofia walked out holding a large bundle of clothing and covered in a heavy layer of dirt and dust.

"Oh, it's you guys."

I nodded. "Yes, it is us."

"Wonderful. Help me get this place clean. I have been working day and night, I have killed six spiders of extreme size, and I have taken six baths in two days."

"Its only been two days?" I turned to Kieran as I tried to remember. It seemed like so long ago that we had set out from the Desert Clan.

"It was at least three days." He pointed at his fingers as he thought it over. "Yeah, three days. I've sleep that many times."

"I have not actually slept in a while." Though my sleep schedule had always been on the weird side though I usually sleep at least once a day. Only for a few hours though.

Sofia looked around. "Why don't you go clean Fay's room? I have been putting it off for a while. Fay is a little-"

"Abrasive."

"Talk about - wait, no, it was- You are one to talk." My brain was not working now very well right now. Must have been all the dust and the mess of a room back there. This one had to be better. We should invite Ayala to come here too, so she did not have to get a healer from the bad springs.

"Yeah. I know."

"Okay." Sofia walked forward and handed me a broom then pointed at a door. "That's Fay's room." I nodded and walked towards it. I opened it and walked in. Fay looked towards me from her sketchbook.

"Oh, you're here."

"Yeah. Took us a while to get the hand of getting back."

Fay nodded. "I don't have that problem, but it is boring here and dusty." It was strange. Her voice held a bit of a whine in it. I had not heard her voice change before. Well, there was a few times, but this was different. It made her more kanji now. I like that. Though it was strange and made me even more worried.

"I could get one of my books, but Sofia said to clean up in here."

"Is that what she is doing?" Fay set down her sketchbook and stood up. "She didn't tell me. I thought she was a crazy person." Fay's tail was twitching. Plumes of dust hung off of it.

"You are supposed to be resting, right?"

"What do you think I have been doing for the past couple of however long I have been here?" Fay waved her hand sharply. "There is no clock, so I can't tell time."

"I could-" I looked around the room- "do something." My tail flicked.

"Like what?"

"I don't know, Something?" Fay snorted then sat back down. A silence stretched between us. I looked down at the floor as I started to run the brush along the floor. I am pretty sure that is how people sweeped. It was how it was done in my books. It moved the dirt around and that was the important part. It did not really get much cleaner in here though. The dirt just moved where it settled.

"Are you alright?"

"As far as I know I am."

Fay nodded. "That's good."

"Yeah. How are you?"

"Bored. Kind of nauseous, but starving and the sound of the broom is grating against my ears."

I stopped sweeping. "Oh, sorry."

"No, its my fault. I'm still getting used to my new powers and all that."

I stared at her. "You got magic now?" Fin said that it would take least a week for her to get them. At least, I think he said that. I could be mistaken.

"Enhanced hearing for now. Sofia is a hummer, so it is annoying. What have you been up to?"

I took a deep breath in then started to tell her exactly what happened as detailed as possible. "And that is basically what happened."

Fay made a sound in her throat. "That sounds like a total disaster."

"It pretty much was."

She nodded. "Yep." Fay glanced around the room. "Do you, you know, want to talk about it?" I dug deep into what I understood of my feelings right now. Though that was only a few. Did I want to talk about? Yes, I think I did want to. Fay was staring at me with her usual expression now. It was a little unnerving.

"I think I do."

"Oh, dear Freya."

"Do you not want me too?"

Fay shrugged. "We are friends, aren't we? This is what friends do for each other."

"We do not have to if you do not want to."

"You are starting to make this into a sex thing. Just get on with it." My tail was flicking as my mind was running circles around itself. On one paw, hand, paw, something, I did not want to make Fay not like me. On the other something, I think I needed to talk about this with someone and Fay was surprisingly good with this kind of thing.

"Okay," I gathered up my thoughts. "I am feeling kind of, well, freaked out."

Fay sighed then nodded slowly. "Okay. Why are you freaking out?"

"Because of all the things that happen around us. There was a god attacking us then we partied for a while then we went into Delta's training program then we had to go to the Desert clan." I took a deep breath in. "Then I meet a kitsune at the horse races that wants me to help him with the Rouge situation in the Icy Mountains. Apparently, it is really bad for the farmers. I am kind of worried that Mother lied to all of us and that Nidling was a Rogue spy and we are all going to get attacked. I mean with Sekhmet's abilities she could pretend to be anyone. There is literally nothing we can do to stop her if she really want to. Soon enough, I am going to have to be the regent for the whole country while Mother is, you know," I puffed out my cheeks and made a round gesture a little bit away from my stomach. "Then if I make even a simple mistake, someone will suffer. It probably would not be me or anyone I actually care about, but it is going to be someone. Worst is the fact that I might not even know I messed up their lives." I stared at Fay as she blinked at me. She took a breath in.

"I'm a little rusty at this, but I'll give it my best shot." She sighed again then leaned forward to put both of her hands on my shoulders while maintaining eye contact. My fur was raised up as a strange feeling fill me my stomach. It felt like a mixture between awe and friendship. At least, I hoped it was friendship. It would not do to develop a crush on Fay now. Even if I did it would most likely be from the stress of the past few days. "Your feelings are valid."

"Is that it?"

She nodded. "Yes. I am trying to remember the rest." She nuzzled against me. I returned the favor. I felt better now that I had someone to share with. My relationship with Kieran was too new for big feelings talk now, but I would talk to him later. It was nice to talk to him even if we did not really say much to each other.

"Fay, how do you know when you like someone?" Fay stared at me with a slightly annoyed tilt to her head. "Right, aromatic." She nodded. "Well, I need help."

"In my opinion, you tend to know you are in love suddenly while doing something incredibly stupid. Doe realized it during KP one day. She nearly burned herself on the pot."

"So it is supposed to be like Queen Diana and Lady Willow's meeting?" Queen Diana had many lovers over the series, but Lady Willow was my favorite. Mostly because Lady Willow reminded me a lot of Delta. It was weird, because she was from Zonyia.

"Or her and Cynthia, Leonard, Misty, Lunar Strike,Sweet Melody, or King Charles." Fay said each name with even more sarcasm. Must be the sickness. Her moods had not change so quickly before all of this went down. Not that it was a bad thing, but it was strange coming from Fay.

"Or any of them."

The door opened and Sofia walked in. Her talisman was glowing a bright pink color. I looked down at mine. It looked the same as it always did. Fin followed after Sofia and closed the door with a hip bump to the door. "What is the problem in here?" Fin had changed his voice again. This time it sounded old like the books that Rose Quartz gives me on history. They were probably written by her grandmother.

I looked at Fay. She turned towards them with a sharp lift to her head. "Nothing. Kalima has had a stressful time, so I am giving her advise." Not exactly the whole truth, but not a complete lie. I guess that made it balance itself out.

"That can't be all that is happening. The amulet is very clear. There is a problem here."

Sofia looked slightly embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I can't really control my magic yet."

"That magic will not be controlled, lass." Fin snorted. "Fate controls it just as much as it controls you."

"Super." Fay laid back with a groan. I shifted to allow her room to do so.

"Yes, it can be." Fin smiled and nodded.

"I am pretty sure that it was sarcasm." He turned towards me and I shrank back into the wall with my ears pinned against my head. "Just saying based on Fay's personality."

"I know. I was trying to be positive." Fin sighed through his nose. "Look, the amulet lead her here, so it will not stop until the problem is dealt with." He looked between the two of us. "The true question is who has the problem."

I just wanted to visit Fay and talk to her, not get my problems dragged out of me in front of everyone. "Well-"

"I'm stuck on bed rest for at least three more days. It is driving me up the wall."

"Please don't do that. I can't reach that high up the wall to clean them." Fin bared his teeth then. Fay stared at him for a minute before she turned to me.

"I am pretty sure that it was a metaphor." My fur was prickling now. My feet were starting to sweat now. I shook out one of my feet. The wind felt nice. I wiggled my claws then. The fur moved against the others in wet clumps.

"I know that. I was continuing the joke." Fin moved his tail slowly.

"Oh." I looked around the room slowly now. Fay shifted her legs against me. I glanced towards her and she shrugged at me.

The door open and Kieran walked in. His hair was matted to his head in little clumps with cobwebs. "Why wasn't I invited to the party?" He looked around and wrinkled his nose. "Poor Fay. This room is a dump."

"Poor Fay can hear you." She growled at him and her tail started slapping against me. It was not painful, so I allowed her to continue. "But it true. This place is nasty."

"I'm pretty sure that I saw a couple patches of mold in a couple of the rooms." I shuddered at that thought. It was just gross.

"It was probably just a cobweb or something similar." Fin snorted and wagged his tail still. "I made sure that not one drop of water got inside this hall."

"You said that about spiders too and I killed at least six of them." Sofia walked over and grabbed the broom with a snort.

"Why is your necklace glowing like a light bulb."

"It isn't Rudolph." Sofia growled and looked towards the door. Her ears were pinned back and started to snap her tail back and forth. Kieran looked at her blankly. He shook his head and a couple of cobwebs fell out. They drifted through the air like dandelion weeds. His tail wrapped around his waist. He started to work the webs out of it.

"I never said it was."

"Aleksandr would have." Sofia looked kind of sad then.

"I'm not him." Kieran growled at her shortly then went back to his tail. I looked down at my paws. I unsheathed my claws and inspected them. No dust or anything had gotten on them. Though I needed to sharpen them something awful. I looked around the room slowly again. Fay had gotten her sketchbook back and was now drawing on something. Kieran was standing by the door with Sofia on the other side working on sweeping the floor. Fin was sitting close to me. He was breathing in quickly through his nose.

"I know you aren't."

"Have you spent the last couple days cleaning?"

Sofia looked at me suddenly. I shifted closer into Fay. "Yes, I have a mild fear of dirt." She made a clicking sound with her tongue. "Which is why I need this place to be clean." She shuddered and shook her tail out.

"So this like Sekhmet's Hall for you." Kieran and I shushed her sharply with mine turning into a hiss.

"Don't mention her."

"Please," I said as I looked around, almost expecting her to pop up out of the corner with a psycho laugh. My fur was crawling just thinking about it. Anywhere, anyplace. She could get to them all. Anytime. My breathing had increased. I could almost feel my heart beating now. Fay shifted next to me. She started to purr as she bumped against me.

Sorry." Fay said it quiet enough that I could barely hear it. Everything slowed then as my heart started to thunder. I heard someone whimper, but I do not know who. Kieran was sitting next to me now. I did not see him move. The dust seemed to surround me then. Fin barked something and Sofia was suddenly in front of me. I blinked as my mind continued downwards. 

The room was bare. Nothing to ground with. Anything would do now. Smell. I can smell things. Even if I can not see nothing. I breathed in. Kieran disappeared. His scent lingered though. He smelled nice. Like a food. Fay smelled like dust and sick. Not like her usual smell. She smelled like sweat, grass, dirt, and metal. Sofia smelled nasty though she had a lighter, almost floral scent beneath it. Fin smelled like- I took a deeper breath in through my mouth. Nothing. He did not smell like anything. I stared at him then. A calmness settled over me then.

Kieran appeared again. He made a gesture for me to open my mouth. I did so and he put something cold on my tongue. I am pretty sure I can trust him not to put something gross in my mouth while I was still panicking. My body was still feeling the strange calmness that I could not explain. Maybe, it was something that Fin could do. I closed my mouth and started to suck on the ice cube.

"Are you okay?" I turned to Kieran and shook my head. I was getting better, but I was not okay yet. "Are you feeling better than before?" I nodded. "That's good." I nodded again. He was nice to be around. Fay was still purring though she had stopped a couple of times only to start again a second later. Fin just kept staring at me. Sofia was rubbing my back. It was a weird feeling, but I must say that I liked it. I breathed in and I slowly returned to normal. Once all of it was gone, Fin looked away then. I smiled at them. It felt nice to have someone to stand beside me while the worse happened. I looked around the room and came to a startling conclusion. I loved them. That sent another wave of panic, but this time I was too drained to care this time. These people were my family now whether or not I wanted them to be.

I tried to stand up, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me. I looked towards Fay. She actually looked concerned. How bad was it for her to actually show emotion. I felt horrible about that. "I need to go pee." Fay nodded then let go of my shoulder. I stood up and Fay followed suit. "I can do this alone." She looked at me like she was not convinced and I moved towards the door. Fay followed after me. I sighed. I do not have the strength left to argue with her now. Fin opened the door. I could feel eyes boring into me as I left the room. My fur stood on ends as I looked around the room again. 

"The bathroom is this way." Fay set her hand on my shoulder and pushed me towards a door. She opened it into the strangest dirtroom I had ever seen. The door closed. I turned to look at it. Fay did not follow me in here. I turned back. There was several things in here that I did not recognize plus a section of the room was marked off from the rest. Beside me was a table like thing with a dip in the middle and a pipe coming off of it. Next to it was a smaller thing with a large bowl like opening. It had a strange covering in yellow with blue fishes that matched the curtain separating the room. I moved closer to it. There was a carpet. The fluff tickled the pads of my feet. As I got closer I noticed that there was water inside and a thin metal rod. I reached forward and touched it. It moved downwards. Suddenly, a loud swirling sound occurred. I yelped and jumped backwards with a sharp hiss. There was a knocking at the door. "Are you alright?"

I glanced around the room before I turned back to the door. "Yes. It is just a little weird."

Fay made an affirmative noise. "Yeah. I had to ask Sofia how it worked. Apparently, you don't have to bury your scat since the bowl eats it."

"That is creepy." What did it want with my scat? Was it a scat eater? That was just nasty. I moved back towards the bowl thing now. I sniffed at it. Scat and pee waffed off of it though it also had another scent on it, but I could not tell what it was.

"Yep and she gets mad if you don't let it eat it, so you got to." Was Sofia and the scat eating bowl in this together? Why else would she be mad if it was not feed. She would not be. Though maybe she made a pact with it. I moved towards it slowly as I reached out with my magic sense. There was none that I could feel. I made it to the edge of the bowl then pulled up my dress. I sat on it and let nature run its course. When I was finished, I feed it then walked out of the room.

Fay stood up and looked at me levelly. "Is everything alright?"

"I am doing better." She nodded.

"You can tell me if you aren't feeling alright." She was staring at me sharply. One of her ears was twitching slowly. Her tail was swinging back and forth slowly. "It is part of my job to look after your emotion well being, you know?"

"I know. I would tell you."

"You better. I am not watching a squalling kit." She lifted her head and walked with me back into the room. Sofia had started working on sweeping the floor while Kieran was making the bed. Fin was looking around the room with a grumpy expression. I wonder what he would do if I asked him to tie dust cloths to him so he could help sweep. He would probably growl at me. It is best if I did not ask him about it. We clean up the room together with only a few glances towards me during it. Afterwards, Fay went to clean up the spider webs while Sofia and I got started on cleaning one of the other room while Kieran went to find the bathroom.

~Hex~

I stared blankly at the people sleeping next to the fire. I just don't understand how they could sleep like that. On the cold ground without something to hold on to. Though the Hydra had it the worst, I would think, being cold blooded. She had wiggled her way almost into the fire though the black female stayed next to her. Bubbles were coming out of mouth as well as mumbles. Most I could barely hear, but the worst were when she snarled just as I was about to fall asleep.

Pixel moved next to me and gave off a loud snore. I glared at him for being loud, but he didn't notice. He was asleep, so I didn't fault him for that. I sighed and flapped my wings while I let go of the bar. I flipped over and landed on my feet.

I needed to get out of here. I need to fly. I moved towards the door. Pixie let out a low coo noise. I pushed open the door and walked out into the snowy night. The ground crunched beneath me. Icicles hung from the branches in long rivets. I flapped up my wings and I tried to warm up my wings. After two more flaps, I jumped up and grabbed one of the branches closest to me then I jumped up as I flapped my wings hard enough to achieve flight.

My wings were made to cut through harsh winds. It was what I was made to do. I smiled a little, my docked tail was almost wagging now. My mind hurt for a minute as I tried to remember what I had done to get it removed, but a darkness seemed to wither in my mind as I did so. It was whispering of terrible things. I flattened my ears then looked underneath me. 

It was pre-dawn, so it was still dark though the moon set quickly around here. A distant sound of wings hit my ears then. For one second, my wings froze, my breathing stopped, and even my heart skipped a beat as the sound of feathered wings and screaming filled my mind. Then I pulled through my thoughts and pushed my feelings down as it got closer. I recognized the sound of leather beating against the wind then.

Soon, I could see the dragon who was making that noise. A jittery feeling ran through me as my mind flashed through images of fire balls being rained down on us as our nursemaid's wings wrapped around us, I can't even remember which one it was. I did know she was called in for termination soon after we reached training age. The new High Mother had to make a show of force and she had stepped out of line somehow. It made me feel sad for her and angry at the High Mother, but I wasn't supposed to. She was just one of a thousand, unneeded now that her purpose had been fufilled and the High Mother would make us all eternal when the Night Mother returned to us with the Blood Born Mother. Together they will make us all complete finally. It would be a beautiful day and all would live in harmony. The broken would finally be total then. I was just one step in our goal, but that goal needed Pixie alive to be completed.

"Hello, little kit." I started as the purple dragoness flapped her wing in a hover. "I have never seen you before around here."

"I haven't seen you around here either." And I lived here, so it counted for more.

She nodded. "I'm Nya. Who are you?" I stared at her and didn't answer. She shrugged. "I'm hunt now. I got some new friends who always need new food. They are nesting, you see?" I stared at her still. She looked uncomfortable. "Do you have a name? A couple of kits don't get names. Most of them were from the Rouges and freaked at the thought."

Most likely one of the broken. They would get names when they were made whole. The dark voices was still whispering though I couldn't tell what it was say now. "Hex."

She blinked. "That's your name?" I nodded. "I have a friend named Jinx. Small world." She gave a small laugh. Her wings tilted slightly towards me. I flapped backwards. "Is this your territory?"

"My flock's." My wings were starting to burn now and my tail was twitching now.

The dragoness nodded. "I understand. I wasn't aware of the territory lines around here. I will leave now." She turned and flew away. I watched her fly until she was a tiny speck on the horizon. I turned around and flew back towards home. The sun was rising and I can't stand bright lights in my eyes. The sun was just over the trees when I made it back. The fire had died down while I was gone, so I put a couple logs on the embers. I climbed up on my perch and covered my face with my wings so I could sleep.

~Kalima~

The place was now a lot cleaner though it was hard to get used to the more weird things in it. The bath was smaller than I was used to and the water came of the top part in a rain like manner. It was better than the bath back home, but it was still a challenge for me. Every kept close to me after my attack yesterday. It freaked me out sort of, but it ended before it could trigger another one. Kieran and Sofia had already started talking about going furniture shopping. Though Kieran's idea was to find things we liked then make them back here instead of buying which I thought was strange, but I chose not to comment. Though it did not get too far before everyone was coming back for the meeting. Sofia had found a table cloth for the table in one of the rooms that she then washed and put it in the meeting room. A couple of the chairs had pillows on them, but we could not find enough to go around all of them. Delta's group was the last to arrive though they were in very good condition for having spent several days in the woods. Kiera's group was more unkempt, but they looked a little happier then Delta's.

"Okay, let's call this meeting to order." I turned to Delta as she sat down in her chair. "We found a flock of Bat-Griffin people, a Siren, and a Hydra. Plus the chaos level in the Swamplands in high. Really high. They had a snow storm in summer after the trees grew orange bark with green spots and it rained bow ties on our heads."

"It was worse then when Brie gets dumped," Seraphine said.

"That is pretty bad. Are you sure?" I looked towards Kieran. He had cleaned up before the others had arrived though his cloths were dusty and dirty.

"Yes, I am, Little Brother," Seraphine drew out the last two words, drawing a hiss from Kieran. "I was there. It was horrible." Her tail was flicking. I looked around the table. Most of the others were looking tired, but a few of them were looking interested. Sofia and Aleksandr were talking to each other quietly. Caterina and Lyra were leaning against each other with Caterina's head on Lyra's shoulder. Fay was scribbling in her art book with an intense expression. Beside Fay, Ayala was working on a patch of orange fabric with purple stitches on it though I will admit that it did not look that good. Doe was writing something down in her book humming softly. Pinkie was stretching between both of them with her head on Doe's shoulder. Jinx was sitting in her chair and looking around the room. Her fingers were hitting against the stone. Destiny was wiping off a cog while a small matted thing rested on the table in front of her. Nix was flipping through a book with a bored expression.

"First off, I am older than you. Ask Mother." Kieran growled at her and flashed his teeth with a sharp hiss afterwards. "Second, I wasn't doubting your ability to remember things." He gave another growl. "I know all too well that you have a stupidly good mind for details."

"My mind isn't stupid. Not even for details." Seraphine growled. Delta sighed.

"Okay, stop fighting." They looked at Delta then at each other. Finally they shrugged and looked away from each other. Kieran's ear was flicking rapidly. "Thank you." Delta looked around at us. She looked stressed to me. "Now, who wants to go next? We gave our report."

I looked around, hoping that I wouldn't have to be the one to give it. Kieran sighed. "Alright, I'll go."

"This reminds me way too much of school," Catrina said with a sleepy look. "The bad part of school. Not the fun part."

"Shush. Go to sleep," Aleksandr said with a chuckle. "Go to sleep, little lamb."

"Fu-" Lyra put her hand over Caterina's mouth. Catrina glared down at her hand.

"There are children present."

Caterina mumbled for a couple of minutes before Lyra removed her hand. "Aleksandr isn't that young." Her tail started twitching.

"In the head, he is." Lyra laughed then. "Top head, not the bottom one."

"Thank you for contributing to my low self-esteem." Aleksandr looked at weirdly. "Not even going to comment on the tasteless joke you just made."

Lyra shrugged. "I'm your sister. That is part of my job." She waved her hand and looked around the room with her nose raised. "Jokes included."

"Well, I'll send you my therapy bill." Aleksandr snorted. "You know, since you have a job and all." He sneezed then.

"Bless you. And you have a job in annoying me. It's part of your brotherly duties."

"Please, don't say that. It sounds nasty." Kieran said.

"Like you don't uphold your brotherly duties." Seraphine stared at him sharply. Her ear was twitching a mile a minute. "Ragnar is better at annoying me, but you are a close second though." She smiled at Kieran in her strange way.

"Thank you for insulting me." He glared at her. "I always love it."

"When is the last time any of you took a bath?" Sofia looked around the room. "We have a bathroom here. All of you will feel much better afterwards."

"Last nightish," I said as I tried to remember. I was pretty sure it was last night, but it might have been this morning. We had spent a lot of time cleaning and there was still no clocks so I could only guess at when. We should get some when we go furniture shopping. Wait, do you have to go to a different store to get a clock then for different things? I had never had to buy anything. I could ask someone. I looked around the room again. Delta, Nix, Jinx.Ayala, Fay, and Ayala would not know. Kieran and Seraphine might as well as Caterina, Lyra, Aleksandr, Sofia, and Destiny might know though they were already in their own worlds now. I do not think that I should interrupt it. It would be very rude.

"A couple of days give or take a few," Jinx said. She was now almost bouncing in her seat. "It was in the city anyhow."

"About the same to me." Nix nuzzled against her then leaned back into his chair. "It has been a frustrating couple of days. The Rogues are hard to track."

Keira nodded. "Yep." She tapped her foot against the floor quickly. Her claws making a clicking sound against the stone, her tail twitching quickly. "We are making progress now though. I managed to find an old scent though it is a good week old."

"Four or five days. We should be glad that it didn't rain during all of that time or we wouldn't have found it." Nix flipped a page in his book. He stared at the page for a good minute with a confused look before he flipped the page. "Horrible idea."

Destiny looked up from her wiping. Though I would think that it would be clean by now. "What's horrible?" He flipped the page back and held it up to Destiny. She looked surprised then confused then realization dawned. "That is horrible."

"Told you." Nix set the book down and flipped the page again.

"How would it even work?" Destiny was staring at her matted thing in front of her then she turned to Fay. "Can I borrow some paper? And maybe a pen too."

Fay looked up. "There's some in my room."

Destiny nodded then stood up. She walked off behind me. "Which one is yours anyway?" Fay pointed at one. I assumed Destiny went in it to get the paper and pen she wanted. A couple minutes later, she came back with what she wanted. She sat back down in her chair and started to scribble on it.

"Ours is doing fine. They are working on theirs. What are you guys doing?" Delta was looking at me now.

I breathed in. "We went to the Grasslands. Attended the races. Not much different than any other year, but we ran into Kieran's ex-boyfriend."

"You managed to convince someone to date you other than Kali?" Delta turned to Kieran with a snarky expression.

"Thank you for making it seem like I can only date losers who can't date anyone else." My feelings were slightly stung, but that was just how Delta was. She didn't think of the consequences of her words. She usually thinks of her actions, but that was just how she was.

"Sorry." She drooped her ears back for a minute before they turned to normal.

"It's okay." It would be. That was part of being friends. It would take a little bit, but I could forgive her for most anything sort of a great crime.

"You meet Ink Drop?" I turned to Seraphine. I nodded. "I honestly though he would be dead by now." She looked up with a sad and thoughtful expression.

"Wow, that's kind of sad," Aleksandr said. "I never really thought about that part of immortality."

"Really, that was the first thing I thought over," Lyra said. "What did you think of?"

"I didn't really think about anything. I just kind of thought about how awesome it seems in movies and books and TV shows." That does seem like something he would do. Though I will admit that I did not give it too much thought either. I have plenty of time to think about it. It's not like I am going to ascend tomorrow.

"So you met Kieran's ex and what?" I turned to Delta. I did not really tell the complete story yet.

"Ink Drop then asked us to come with him to the Icy Mountains to-" I thought over the best way to put this, everyone was looking at me now. I took a deep breath. "He needs us to help his family. They are being kept in their-"

"Mansion by a magic spell? It was cast by the Rogues when they wouldn't enchant weapons and such for them." Keira looked at me unblinkingly. It was a little unnerving especially since she didn't do this often. Only, when she was serious and she wanted us to know it.

I looked toward her. "Yes, how did you know?" She had not show any talent in mind reading before.

"Nya showed up. She apparent found a young hydra then she went inside a portal that plopped her out in a Kitsune home. They had nearly ran out of food, so she hunted for them. Though they need a lot, so Diana decided to stay and help her."

"We weren't going to mention it since she met her mother there and they got into a screaming match. Though it was mostly Keira." I looked at her. She looked grumpier than usual. Her mother had that effect on her sometimes. I kind of understand it sometimes, but others it seemed a little out of proportion.

"Thank you for airing out my dirty laundry." She turned towards Nix then. It was a little tactless, but he did not have that much of bad history so he would not understand that. Though it was also Keira's right to be angry at it. I thought over both points before I decided to stay out of it. This could only lead to a bigger fight.

"Sorry." He looked like he knew he had crossed a line and was genuinely sorry about it now.

"It's not okay." Keira crossed her arms over her chest. "Though it will be. I need time though." Her tail was twitching quickly. Pinkie looked up from Doe's with a short, sleepy sounding cheep.

"So both of you stumbled onto the same problem?" I turned to Delta and nodded. "So we need to work on reformatting the teams." Delta looked around. "Lala will go with Keira's team. They will need all of the hunters they can get."

"We need more people as well. The Ice Queens will need to see us all there, so no one knows anything is wrong. If even one finds anything then it will be everywhere by the next morning." Kieran shook his head. "Believe me. It happened to me with the library wetters incident."

"Library incident?"

"Yeah, I had a favorite shirt. One day, Kestrel and Crescent Moon decided to hold a tie die thing, so they decided to use my shirts first for a demonstration. I was really mad." He paused between was and really like he was thinking. "Really. One thing lead to another and they ended up in the pot and paint got on some book covers. I wonder if it is still there."

He defaced books. I shuddered at the very thought. "It probably is. If not there somewhere else."

"Probably not. They tend to destroy things that don't fit their perfect world view."

Destroying books. I had to stop it somehow when I am Queen. The thought that they could do that. Why don't their tea cup dragons stop them? They may be small, but they were furious when they were mad. "That is terrible."

"Yes, it is. Such is life."

"Ice Queens are terrible. This is just a fact of life." Delta shrugged and looked around,

"Not all of the Icy Mountains are that bad." Kieran had a point with that, but not all people from the Icy Mountains were Ice Queens. 

"But all Ice Queens are bad." That was another fact that is true. Even I had to admit that sentence was grammatically incorrect. It was horrible when one of the people who raised you was a writer. You always had an editor in the background of your mind while you think and talk. It can get so annoying and it never ever goes away. No matter how hard you try.

"This we know." Keira placed her head on the palm of her hand.

Sofia stood up. "Everyone seems really tired. Why don't we call it a night and sleep here. In the morning we can divide everything up."

"That sounds good. Everyone pick a room." Delta turned to Fay. "Jinx and I will stay with you for now." Fay stood up and gestured for them to follow her to her room. We would have to mark the doors some how. Maybe with names or pictographs. It would be fun to pick out which one I got. Though I am pretty sure I would get a book. A pretty book, but that would have to be later. Everyone got up. I stood up as well. A room here would be much better than the one in the Icy Mountain. At least, I will not get a terrible disease here. Though considering the fact that I fought against the goddess of plagues it might be best not to worry too much about diseases. It might happen either way. It might also be that I have to be more careful to avoid them. One of them was bound to be correct.

The others just seemed to choose random room. I waited until everyone else had chosen then I chose between the last two available. It was not the most fancy of places, but it was clean and worlds above the other room. There was a small pallet made by the left wall. Beside it was a red pillow and blanket. I made up the bed. We had cleaned the room recently too. I could vaguely remember this exact room though not much happened in it aside from the cleaning. My door was pushed open. Delta walked into the room. "I'm going to stay with you."

"There was a spider." Delta nodded. "Okay." I patted the ground next to me. "You seemed not yourself during the meeting?" She sat down next to me.

"You noticed?" She smiled at me weakly then looked away.

"Keira noticed and she's blind." Delta thumped me on the nose. I shook my head in mild surprise. "I'm just saying. Plus you were never really good with concealing your emotions."

She nodded. "It comes with having a mind reader in the pride. I never got to be good at hiding them from my friends. Everyone else, I am really good at, but not you guys."

"That's a good thing."

"Depends on who you ask." She sighed. "The swamplands was worse than I thought it would be. They had snow in summer. It just feels wrong to me."

"You guys have snow on the spring solstice."

"Equinox."

"Bless you."

She laughed. "Fur brain." I stuck my tongue out. "So what's the matter with you?"

I sighed. "Yesterdayish, I realized that I love all of you guys and it made me feel anxious. What if I do something wrong and all of you guys leave? What would I do then?"

"There isn't anything that you could do wrong that would make me leave you. Volcanic girls are loyal to the last. And that goes double for you." Delta nuzzled against me with a soft purr rumbling out of her chest. "So you are freaked out because you realized that you actually care about people?"

"Yes."

"And you are scared they will reject you?"

"Yes."

"Welcome to being a teenager. It's horrible." She sighed and wrapped her tail around me. "All joking aside, no one is going to leave you." She leaned in closer to me. "How far have you and Kieran gotten?"

"What?"

"Have you guys gone on a proper date yet?"

"Yes, we have."

"In a public place?"

"Do the horse races count?" I was pretty sure that the sun watching counted as a date.

"Eh. Depends on who you ask."

"If I ask you?"

"Sure. Though it is awfully unromantic."

"Speaking of romance, you and Seraphine are dating now?"

She shrugged. "I guess so."

"How did she ever convince you to do anything?"

"Sera looked sad, so I offered to take her somewhere with food. We ate and talked. I had a pretty good time then she asked if it was a date. So I said yes, since I wasn't really opposed to the idea of it. The rest is history as they say." Her tail was twitching now.

"So you are finally loosening up?" She glared at me. "What? You have been being really bossy lately."

She lifted up her head and growled at me lowly. "It's not my fault that Kieran is trying to take over. If I wasn't being bossy anyway, nothing would get done."

"No one really knows you aside from Keira, Fay, Doe, Nix, Jinx, Ayala- Okay a lot of the people know you here, but that does not mean that the ones that do not will want to take orders from you."

Delta looked at me vacantly. "What do you mean? I'm going to be commander one day."

"They are not Volcanic so it does not matter. At least not to them."

She stared at me. Something was working through her mind. It looked like it was bothering her on a deep level. I moved closer to her while I purred. "Thank you." I continued to purr as I scooted even closer. She was my best friend. I love her so much.

"You're welcome." We sat there in silence that for once didn't feel like it was suffocating me or that I would be forced to make conversation just to make it stop.

"So if I'm not leader then who is?"

"I don't know. Do we really need one?" I shrugged. We probably needed one, but we should decide who it was together.

"Yes. A leader makes sure that the group doesn't fall apart." She was looking around the room quickly. Her breathing had increased slightly though she wasn't in the dangerous range yet. I wrapped my tail around her as I kept purring. She needs me. I am here. This is what a friend does.

"So if it isn't you who would you think is the best candidate?"

She didn't speak for a while as she thought it over. "I don't know any of them well enough to make that choice."

"And how would you go about getting info?"

She wrinkled her nose then sighed. "By getting to know them."

"Who knows, you might even get their support as leader."

Delta moved slightly away from me then turned towards me with an almost manic expression. "Maybe Sera and I can go on a double date with you and Kieran. I haven't really spent much time with him. I have to do my sisterly duty as your sister." She laughed. "That was redundant."

"You are redundant."

"No, you are redundant." We both laughed. She looked better now. A little happier. She always liked to have a plan and we had managed to work one out together. Now, we can be a little silly.

"No, you."

"It's you."

"It's not me."

"Well it isn't me either." She flashed her teeth at me then gave a fake sounding growl. We bowled over in laughter. "You are ridiculous."

"Yeah, I am, but so are you."

"Yeah. I love you."

"I love you, too."

Delta rubbed her head against me while she purred. "It's been a while since we spent time like this together. It's nice."

"Yeah, it is." I curled my tail closer around her. She was warm, really warm and soft. It was surprisingly nice. "I have a question."

"Yeah?"

"How did you know that you like girls?"

Delta looked at me then shrugged. "I'm Volcanic. It was expected that I would one day take a mate and have a couple kits to take on the Pride name. Though the pressure lessened when I brought Doe into the pride and she started dating Lala, but it isn't fair for her to have to carry enough kits to make a pride. We probably won't have enough to make a complete pride total, but at least one of our kits will mate with someone. From there it is only a matter of time before we have fifty members."

My mind went through some numbers quickly then thought over the best thing to say. "Ayala's family doesn't have fifty members."

Delta nodded. "Yeah, Marigold was adopted into the family, so she didn't need to get official when she got into office." Her tail was twitching now. She looked annoyed, I think.

"But you will?" She nodded. "You could always borrow a few kits from Aunt Rhea. She has a ton, so she will not miss them for a while yet."

She snorted sharply. "She will. Though that is quite a thought."

"Yeah." We settled once again into silence. We should probably go to bed soon, but I hadn't spent much time together in a little while. Delta moved closer to me slowly. Her head rested on my shoulder. Her breathing was slow and even. I looked towards her. Her eyes were closed and small snores started coming out of her mouth. I looked at her for a minute then I moved around until I was comfortable. I leaned my head against hers then I closed my eyes. I sat there for a while until I could not ignore the itch on my spine, so I had to scratch it quickly. I closed my eyes again and finally I feel asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that this chapter took so long. As anyone who follows my tumblr already knows, I accidentally deleted the chapter and had to rewrite it. Of course that was after Hurricane Laura blew threw my neighborhood and made me lose power for five days. During all of this, one of my family members decided to get back in touch with my mom. Along with her two and four year old. Suffice to say, I was not so pleased with it since I had literally no maternal instincts. It was a wild ride in getting this chapter ready, so please enjoy it.
> 
> For a second thing that needs discussing, Tiamat is old, so the views that she expresses in this chapter are a sign of her times. I do not condone what she thinks in any way. She is a deeply racist person, but she will get better. Also, the swamplands are deeply traditional, so there will be mentions of corporal punishment. If this distresses you, you may not wish to read this.
> 
> * Edit: I'm sorry for any confusion about Swift Song and Silent Song. They are two different characters and I got confused between them. I was too tired to catch it earlier, but it is fixed now.

"Hello, Miss." Green wings and a happy voice greeted me when I lifted up my head. He was small and lightly feathered. The voice had an almost female tint to the voice. A small sock was in his mouth. I lifted my head up and glared down at him. Why did this little wisp decide to wake me up? I had spent all of yesterday learning the lay of the land. My wings hurt now though I had felt worse. These younglings here are weaklings. Can't even stand an hour of flight without whining. I could have gone much longer back in the day though that room took away much of my magic and the years took away most of my muscles.

"Who are you?" I flicked my tongue out towards him. Something smelled wrong about him. It was as if the Fay goddess had stolen him for her court and he managed to escape. He wouldn't be the first though she left her taint on each of him. Poor little Ghost.

"Green Tiger's Eye, Son of Green Beryl and Swift Song." He dipped into a bow though it was sloppy. I blinked at him. A jungle born mother and a griffin named dragon, I hoped. These kits cannot even keep within the bounds of nature. Disgusting. My tail wiggled as I looked around. I was getting restless now. Though I couldn't explain why. This area though was seeped with magic though it came in flavors I couldn't tell apart. "Who are you Miss?" A polite hatchling. That was somehow amusing to me so I smiled at him.

"I am Tiamat." It is better not to tell him my titles. The young didn't understand enough to fear though they do have a bit of wonder that inspires affection. Even if the occasional bit of wonder leads them right into Reyna's claws.

"I like that name."

"It is the only one I got now." The hatchling looked at me then with understanding eyes though I couldn't understand why.

"We get a lot of weird people here. Some make Mother keep me away though most are really nice." He smiled then. "Like my friend, Pixel. He was really weird when he got here though he has gotten a lot better."

I shook my head as a sudden strong itch suddenly started at my neck that I couldn't reach with my wing. "That sounds quite fascinating." Then something started to scratch at my brain. "Do any of the weird people have a tree that grows crystals?"

The hatchling squeaked then and hid under his wing. I reached forward and nuzzled him. He chirped at me. Slowly, he looked towards me and the trembling stopped. Though small shudders ran through him at random. "The really bad ones. They do. Mother doesn't want to see it though I flap through their territories sometimes with Pixel. He can keep people safe. They taught him how to though they were bad about it. Mother said they broke part of him, something inside that you can't fix. I wanna do it though. He is so nice to me." 

The tree was around here. This area was thick with magic. No one would question a few new magics in it. That tree needed magic to grow though it gave off plenty of its own. If the kit could find it, it must be around here. A short flight away. My wings didn't hurt as much now. I looked down at the hatchling then. I couldn't just leave him here. Whether or not this was just misplace maternal sentiment, I could leave a young one in this area. How his mother could, I would not understand. She must have her reasons. Quickstrike left me alone often enough to hunt. Though Cold, Fire, Crackle, and Small Leap were with me. Before Crackle and Fire had to leave. I shook my head to bring myself back. The past was like poison sometime and it was best not to dwell in it too long. Either could kill you. Though I guess in that way it was like water.

"Where were you going when you stopped to-"

"Make sure the crows weren't going to eat the flesh off of your still warm carcass."

"Dragons don't leave bodies." They became part of the earth as all the living did eventually. Though their magic lingered afterwards. Reyna managed to find a way to tap into it. I shook my head sharply. Now was when I was supposed to be, it wouldn't do to get lost in the past now. Water, poison, all of that nonsense I had spout a minute ago.

"Oh yeah." Then he started to squirm them. "Where's Socky?"

"Who?"

He started looking around. None of the small rocks were safe from his search. "My new sock. I named him after I found him."

"You found a sock laying around."

He turned to me and nodded. "Yes. In the old house."

"The old house?"

"Yes, it belonged to really creepy old guy they say came back to haunt the place when he died. Though I never seen him." Ghost didn't exist. Souls can't remain without a vessel. Whether it was a crystal, a tree, or an animal it needed something. I've even seen a few statues used as vessel. Though those tended to wear out quickly when the statue maker found them and took quite a bit of offense to it. Usually with the closest hammer they had though a few had gotten quite creative. My personal favorite was the one who tried to use a banana. It didn't work, but it took guts. They ended up winning. That was after they turned an interesting shade of puce. Both the statue and him. I suppressed a laugh though the hatchling seemed to catch it. "What'ca laughing about?"

"Old memories."

He nodded though I could tell he didn't understand. He looked up at the sky then looked at me. "It's about time for dinner. Mother said she would make jelly bread today. I like jelly bread. Do you like jelly bread."

I coughed. "I can't say that I have."

He blinked up at me. "You've never had jelly bread? How is that possible?"

"I am a carnivore." 

He wrinkled his nose and stared at me for a long minute. Then he gave off a happy sounding chirp. "I know what that means."

"I am sure you do, little jungle born."

He looked at me then gave a short cheep. "What does that mean? I was born in swamp tree not in the jungle."

I smiled then. "Jungle born. Your ancestors were born in the jungles of Crystal Shores. You can read all about it."

He cheeped. "I am learning how to read. Mother says that I am slower than my siblings though. I can't say why the letters just play tricks on sometimes. They move. She doesn't believe me when I tell her though. She thinks I am lying." I patted my wing over his head. I never did see the point in books though that might just be my age showing there. Stories had always been enough though I will admit wanting a few to pass the time in the dank dungeon. At one point, I was worried that I would grow moss and turn an unappealing shade of grey like a statue. I would make a most fetching statue though I wouldn't appreciate the coloring. Grey was boring. Nothing I do can ever be boring again. I was a goddess of chaos for a reason.

Then I looked down. The young hatchling was still talking, though I couldn't remember what it was about. Then he stopped and looked at me. His eyes bored into me the way only a child's could. It annoyed me though it was cute. A part of my brain realized then that I was supposed to say something. "That must suck." For the first thing I had thought of, it wasn't terrible.

"It does, but they love me. This I know." It was apparently the right thing to say and that filled me with a sort of pride then and he was sort of cute. Though it was in the way that most children were cute.

"I'm sure they do."

He nodded then looked up. "Want to come home for some jelly bread with me?"

A part of me wanted to say no, but I couldn't look into those green eyes and deny the child this. "Sure."

He gave me a bright smile. "Yay. Follow me." I stretched out my wings. A familiar sort of itch was building along my back. It was like molting. The feeling like molting could only be stopped by shifting to another form. My magic had decided I had worn this one too long.

He looked at me. "I can't fly." Right, if you were too small to read, you were too small to fly. Especially in the jungle borne. They were hatched with books in their talons. I had seen it once. The mother said that it was odd though it was her first clutch of eggs. That was when the changes had first started though. Back when I still called Reyna my sister and friend. Strange to think how much could change when power was in the balance.

The child moved in an almost bounce forward. It started me for a second before I remembered where I was. I was no longer in the past. Though it was the present when it happened, which was a truly chaotic commentary on time. 

I had to look past the child to the area around me. Something in me was whispering to be on my guard. When I had decided to settle here for a nap, I had only thought of the fact that it was surrounded by a forest on one side and a mountain on the other. The top had provided a good cover from the heat. It got to me quickly. Just goes to show that gods shouldn't step out of their station in life. A moon goddess shouldn't be about during the day. Though the moon was high in the sky now. Even as I moved under it, I could feel the ancient powers it granted to those in its thrall. My tail shook. I looked down. My scales had taken on a black mirror like shine to them. I was truly gorgeous like this. Not that I wasn't always, but now I was truly in my element. "You are really pretty."

I looked towards him then. He was staring at me with wide eyes and his tiny wings were twitching with every step like he wanted to take flight. "Thank you." His tail twitched in time with his wings. It was like he couldn't stand still.

"You're welcome." He pranced for a few steps as he looked at me. The path before us was surprisingly clear. The area around high rock was not nearly this clean nor was the area around moon ledge. Though that was partially my fault, it just needed that chaotic touch you can't get with cleanliness. No one besides Comet Tail would complain and she was always fearless. Sweet, but reckless. Stubborn. I loved her like my own though her soul must be lost now. So many were to the darkness of- Nope, not thinking this. The past can't be changed. This is when I need to be.

The child was staring at me now. I realized then that I had stopped moving. I started moving again though it took a minute before the child started up as well. 

I looked up to the stars. The souls of the past world were up there now though I had not learned where they go now. I should have asked Erika when we were talking. Now though she was busy with the starting of summer and Sol was busy with his research. While it would be nice to see them, Erika had warned me to stay away for now. Freya and Set were swamped with a backlog of souls. She didn't explain why though. Surely, they had chosen a competent regent while he was recuperating from his lapse in judgement. I taught them to be better than that. Artemis and Pyrrah were also busy with something called the wild hunt which Erika and Sol both refused to explain what it was. Erika looked disgusted while Sol looked amused as he sipped his tea. Bastet had refused to see me any of the three times I had visited them. Sol wouldn't tell me why and half of the time he didn't even notice that I was there with him. He always took after his sire in that way. Good man. He made fine kits. Maybe, I should visit him if I choose to make another set. Though that may be awkward for them. I guess I could see him to get my jollies rattled. Nah, barbs and knots are worth fooling without something cute coming out three months later.

"Miss Tiamat?" I turned my head towards the young kit. "Are the dark forces calling to you?"

"What?" My mind was locked up tight enough that no Truth-Speaker could penetrate it. I had made sure of that. Not even Reyna could break them.

"Hybrids tend to hear the bad voices when they leave. Mother is looking into it, but she doesn't want anyone of their nature in the house until she makes sure it is safe."

Hybrids? What was he talking about? Cross-species dalliances don't make nobody sensitive to dark energy. You either were or you weren't. "Hybrids?"

He nodded. "That's what we have taken to calling them. Before there was no name and they were forced to become very bad. Now that they have a name, they can stay good. Good people make bad people better. Though Mother said that it takes a lot of work like with a feral animal. I don't like that metaphor. Pixel is really nice and not like the slobbery raccoon mother yelled at me for bringing home. She tanned my skin badly and Swift Song had to take it home. Swift Song said that I scared Mother, but I don't know why she was scared. She is old. Old people don't fear nothing."

I smiled. "It sure can seem like that."

"No, that is how it is." So was both the wisdom and foolishness of youth. Appearances are reality even if they aren't really so.

I smiled then moved through the forest. Besides the moist heat of the air, this area appeared to be more forest than swamp. The ground was solid if a little looser than I was used to. I could feel magic curling deep around it. Streams of orange that mixed into the purples that morphed into the red slowly. As the ground got boggier, blue became the most common color. A few times, I caught the scent of Pookas, but I made sure that we kept a good distance from them. They were wily creatures. No need to give them an easy meal. It wasn't because I was becoming slightly fond of the child. Not in the slightest. Mortals passed too quickly, so it wouldn't do to get attached.

Occasionally, the child would point at a distant glowing light and say who's bedding down spot it was. I barely remembered any of the names though there were quite a few griffins around here. I hadn't expected that. Though I guess they decided to come here for the magic in the soil. The few I met back then were fascinated by the way they could manipulate it, but I really didn't pay much attention. That was Finris's work.

Finally, we reached a small house made of an old bent tree into a living place. There were small windows at the top. No glass was in them, but that was to be expected when someone could fly or swim. An old griffin looked at us. Her golden wings were spread out in a threat gesture. Every feather on her was puffed up to make her look bigger. "Greenie Bean who is with you?" Her voice had a strange accent. Cute though.

"This is Miss Tiamat. She is new around here."

"I can see that."

The child leaned towards me and spoke in a low voice. "Swift Song knows everyone here. She's like the clan grandmother. Very broody old biddy as Mother says. Though she says it in her nice voice."

"Why don't you get washed up? I will keep your new friend company." The child looked towards me then towards the griffin then back to me. He skittered off into the house. A puff of hot hair came as he opened the door and disappeared as he closed it. "So he brought home another stray. The last one was a fruit snacker. A griffin. It is one thing for a teacup dragon, it is quite another for a griffin to do so."

"I am an omnivore."

She nodded. "So am I, but that doesn't mean that I go looking for fruit. It can't even put up a good fight. Except for dates. Or was it prunes? One of them fights you from the inside so that you are pouring from both ends."

"I can't say." I shrugged. I had never heard of either.

She nodded. "Neither can I. So how did you come to be here?"

I twitched my wings. "Got into an argument with one of my family members. I decided we both needed space to cool off and my mate wanted to collect some of the data from around here." Technically, it was all true. Bastet and I were fighting and Fenris would want data from around here if he knew I was here.

The griffin snorted. "Yeah. You from up there?" She twisted her head. "Near the castle forest? I recognize your accent." I nodded and the griffin smiled. That was as good a lie as I could manage. "Knew it. I am good at accents." She puffed out her chest. I hope she wasn't about to do one of their displays. That always manages to confuse me.

"If you are done puffing up for our guest, it is dinner time." I turned to look at the green jungle born woman. Her scales were darker than the child's, but she looked like him. Though her tone was sharp. "And I ain't saving none for stragglers."

Swift Song smiled. "Alright, hold ya horse girl." She turned to me. "She means it and the children don't leave nothing in their wake. They are like locus that way." She turned and walked through the door that the jungle born had kept open. "So come on in and wash up. Little Bit can show you the way." A small, scrawny griffin girl popped her head out of the door.

"Mama says to come in. She ain't asking again."

"Thank you, little bit." The griffin cub closed the door.

"My grandbaby, Silent Song, but everyone calls her Little Bit. Do you have any children?"

"Seven of them. Two boys and five girls. Though most of them mated in." Better to have people believe that. They don't take to people born from the same source mating even if the source was magic born. I wasn't even sure if I was able to pass on genetic material anymore since I couldn't get pregnant without magical aid. "From them, I have fifteen grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

The griffin whistled. "Right big family got there. I was proud of my six cubs even if many of them left the nest early. Most of them are gone now though." She sighed and her wings swished in closer to her. "Side effects of getting old. Thankfully, most left behind a grandbaby or two, so our land doesn't go to seed."

Griffins and their land. It was like Kano Fish and their honor. Greatly mocked in both plays and jokes. In fact quite a few of the dirtiest jokes that I had heard were about each. Though Fin appreciated the theater far more than I did. "Good for the family."

The griffin grunt then turned towards the door. I realized that a length of cloth had been tied around a hole in the door. The cloth was a quite fetching shade of bright pink. The griffin walked forward to grab in her muzzle and pulled the door open. She waved for me to go through. I did so and walked into the inner room of the tree. 

It was surprisingly large. The ceiling had small holes lined with blankets, toys, and books while the walls were made of winding book cases that took up most of the house. Here and there on the floor were pillows to lay on. A low table was thrown into the middle of it. The whole room smelled strongly of fruit, very sweet fruit, and drying ink. Another smell lingered though it wasn't unpleasant it was strong. The door closed behind me and the griffin walked in beside me. A part of the wall broke away and moved towards us as a large horde of fledglings and cubs raced by followed by a few molting babies. At the very back of the group was the old dragoness. She turned to look at me then jerked her head back to the room. "Wash up or no food." I moved through the door with the minimum amount of adjustments to my size in order to fit through the door. A small bowl of water rested next to a pile of towels. I dipped my claws inside of the water and cleaned them as best as I was able to. Then I dried my talons on the towel without ripping it. I looked around for a minute before I put the towel in a basket with other moist clothing.

I walked back into the room. The group was gathered around the table with most looking at the plates set in front of them. I could not understand why as they were completely empty. A few were looking towards a section of the wall. It moved and the griffin walked in holding a covered basket with the dragoness following behind her with a loaf of bread in her muzzle and a knife strapped to her side. The griffin looked at me and gestured for me to sit at the table. I looked around until I found a semi empty spot next to the child. I plopped down and he smiled up at me. Across the way, a young griffin boy stared at me though that quickly ended as the griffin plopped a small fish on his plate. He chirped and ripped away small pieces of meat away from the bones inside. A small stream of blood pooled out. The dragoness started to pass around thick slices of bread with smashed fruit and sugar on top. Eventually, I was given both a fish and a slice of bread. I swallowed the fish whole and moved on to the bread. Across the table the boy griffin had stopped eating to stare at me in wonder. "What?"

"You just ate that whole fish."

"Yes."

"In one bite."

"Yes."

"How did you do that?"

"A lot of practice. I used to be mated." I shrugged. That was sure to fly right over the cubs head even though I was sure his grandmother would get it. Sure enough, he looked at me with confusion even while the griffin started to laugh. The dragoness glared at me. I shrugged and went back to my bread. It wasn't terrible even though it still had the seeds in it. Soon enough the food was finished and the horde surrounded me. Questions started flying towards me as well as a few of the older children who thought that this would get them noticed. "One at a time." I scanned the crowd and pointed to a red dragon. "You. What's your name and question?"

"Crimson Quartz." Masculine name for a female, but pretty enough. "How old are you?"

"Very. Next." I pointed to a black griffin male with small wings for his frame. He must be going through a growth spurt. "Same thing. Name and question."

"Shadow Blight. Why are you black? I ain't never seen a black dragon and I haven't known nobody that has."

"My coloring is rare because of the cleansing rite."

"What cleansing rite?" This question came from a peach colored dragon girl.

I sighed. "In the old world, dragons would purge black skin dragons as evil. That is the reason that the coloring is so rare today. The gene wasn't given a chance to spread due to superstition." That summed up a lot of different things. Most war and all that.

"Oh. That's mean."

"Yes, but they believed that it prevented disasters and what was the life of one person compared to a lair of a thousand?"

"But it is still mean." A grey griffin with speckles of darker grey was the one to speak. My mind instantly thought of stormy as her name. Thick glasses moved down her nose as she looked at me. For some reason, she reminded me a lot of Sol and Artemis at that age.

"Yes." Then I pointed towards an orange male dragon. "You are next."

"Sunburst." He shrank back into his pink sister next to him. "I don't have a question."

"That's okay." I pointed to the pink one next to him. "You can go next then."

She gave me a gapped toothed smile. "I am Pink Sunstone."

"That's a lovely name." Mostly, I was hoping to coax the shy one out of their shells, but it ended up causing quite a stir. The young ones that had already asked their question reacted with shock and a far bit of feigned sadness. The dragoness roared for silence though and all of them quieted down instantly. The green child managed to push his way to my side and he curled up next to my wing. "Now, what was your question?" I pointed at the pink one. She smiled at me.

The orange dragon whispered something to his sister who nodded then turned to me. "What did you mean by the mating comment earlier? None of us got it."

"I did." A young griffin that must have just got his first voice break within the past year was the one to speak. Ah, too old for the cubs, too young for the adults. Truly a strange era.

"Sure you did, Sheldon." A red and orange female dragon cub spoke. The red on her faded into the orange in a way that resembled a spark of fire. My mind named her Ember instantly though I chose not to think of her that way. Too quick for this world, no matter how young. Especially the young ones. Everything was after them from predators to diseases to evil curses.

"My name is Shear Wind." His voice cracked towards the end which seemed to make him mad as he growled.

"I remember naming you Shell Song." The griffin woman was carrying the plates into the wash room on her back with the dragoness following. "And don't growl at Shift Gem."

The boy was whining now in the way that only the young or the damned could. "But Swift Song-" The griffin turned to him and puffed up her feathers. The boy lowered his head and whimpered. "Sorry, Swift Song." She nodded and her feathers laid back down though a few on her back had gotten leftover jelly on them.

"Is that all of the questions?" A loud shout of no came from most of the children. I sighed. "Alright. Who wants to go first?" They started clamoring, even a few of the ones that had already gone. I pointed towards the light yellow green girl dragon. I pointed at her and she squeaked.

"Yellow Tourmaline. Why are you so big?"

"I eat a lot." And genetics.

"Ah, so will Sheldon get as big as you? He eats everything."

"He might. Griffins tend to be on the large side." They nodded.

"But that just makes them more cuddly." The red and orange girl grabbed a hold of the closest griffin to her which was a small male. He whined and squirmed in her grip, but she kept a hold of him.

"Yes, it does." I nodded. The girl smiled at me and finally let go of the boy who looked relieved. He glared at his sister and scooted away from her as she giggled at him. He batted at her with his paws though I could see that he hadn't released his claws. She retorted by grasping a hold of his neck and chewing on his ear. The closest children to them quickly joined in and soon the room descended into a free for all brawl. I watched them carefully to make sure that none of them got hurt, though the worst was a few scratches and bite that were deep enough to bleed, but not deep enough to be harmful.

"Enough." The griffin roared and the crowd broke apart. "Nap time." She pointed to another section of the wall. The children walked off with minimum grumbles. "So where are you heading after this?" She walked over to me and sat down with her legs stretched out in front of her.

"Not sure." That was a total lie. I was going to find the crystal fruit tree and destroy it. Hopefully taking out most of the people involved with the tree with it. "Probably just for a scan of the area and hunt for my dinner. Can't be too prepared."

She nodded. "So you said that you were going to scope out the magic of the land right?" I nodded. "Well, you should look up by Shell Creek's place. Nasty piece of work, so the universe makes sure to keep him punished for it. Just last month he attacked one of my cubs, Green Beryl managed to show him not though, and the next day he busted up his wing. Never would tell us why. Might have to do with those damnable Rogues. They have been getting bold since Lady Tiana left for Summer Court. Started shaking up some of the farms for food and land. A couple of the ones have lost cubs to raids now. Most of them daughters too. A few families around here are looking at extinction now. The young ones have left or were taken leaving just the old ones. There have been talks of going to the Grasslands way. Can't say that I have too much problem with that fact. I'm too old to get my plumbing rinsed and my grandcubs are too young to be worrying about that nonsense."

"The grasslands way?" My wings moved slowly. My tail twitched slowly as I looked at her.

She seemed slightly surprised then laughed deeply. "Didn't leave the tower too much did ya? The grasslands mate all of the sisters in a pride to one male though in really big one they steal multiple males. Charming." She looked towards the door with a snort. "Can't say that I want my cubs to get with any of them, but they have their way and we got to respect that." She shook her head and waved her tail about. I nodded. "Why don't we go for a fly together? I'll show you where the magic surges are the worse." 

I stood up and twitched my wings again. It would be nice to have a flying partner. None of my kits really grasped shapechanging, so I had to rely on mortals or Fin when he was in one of his really happy moods. The griffin moved towards the door and I followed after her. When we were outside, I spread my wings and flapped up into the sky quickly. The griffin managed to reach me quickly though her wings were working double time to do so. I looked down at the trees rushing by under me. "So where should we be heading?"

The griffin hummed and tilted her head. "First stop will have to be the wings." She turned to the left and I followed after her. I shifted my mind through the physical until I could see the many layers of magic working underneath it. The magic around us was swift moving and in ever changing colors. In some areas there was a lot of magic swirling together though I couldn't see anything different about those areas when I shifted my mind back into the physical world. I made sure to remember where they were to make sure I could investigate those spots when I didn't have company. The wings turned out to be off the coast quite a way. A few fish people waved at us including a girl with a pink dolphin. Strange color for a mammal though these waters did contain more magic then they had in my day. Though I did not spend much time around water, so this may be normal.

Two grey stones jutted out of the ocean. Along the bottom were several families of fish folk. A couple dived under the water when we neared though most remained. One particularly bright fish girl was directing a swarm of non people fish to dance in the water with her finger. "That's Marisa." The griffin nodded to the fish talker. "She went away to some fancy place to learn to control her magic. She came back with all sorts of strange ideas in her head. Nice girl though. Strong. She will make some lovely babies." Both of us landed on top of the wings and settled down for a short rest. We would have to reach the rest of the spots by moon down. "So where will you be staying?"

"Not too sure." I twitched my wings. The itching was getting worse. It felt like I was going to have to scratch my skin off to get rid of it.

"Well, we got a guest bedroom. Won't be a lot of space and the cubs might get out in the middle of the day when ya napping, but it is a right good spot to rest." The griffin was looking down at the fish. "It comes with three meals a day."

"And what do you get?"

She turned to me then and stared at me with an almost hopeless expression. "I am getting old. My magic is faltering and my strength is going. The cubs are too young to defend themselves. Green tries, but she is small. I can't keep the Rogues away if they came to our door. I need help or my cubs will be slaughtered."

Something moved in me that I hadn't felt in forever. I would protect her family to the best of my abilities. That meant I needed her help. "I will." I looked away and moved my wings about. "Though I haven't been completely honest with you." I took a deep breath.

"Please don't tell me that you want to bump uglies with the Mers? 'Cause my first date telling me that was too much."

I turned back to her. She was smiling or as much as a griffin could."What? No. Lupians mostly." That is what they were known as here. It didn't take too long for me to find that out. One of the black furred kits had a book on the races.

"Ah, I understand. Not about the lupians. Too much barking. That is a big turn off. Of me, at least." Her tail was waving from side to side.

"Will you please let me speak?" The griffin nodded. "Thank you. Now. I am looking for a tree." The griffin looked around us and opened her muzzle. "Not just any tree. This tree grows crystal fruit." 

The griffin's eyes widened suddenly and she made a squawking sound. "The evil sister's tree." She looked around. "I thought it was a myth. My ma talked about it though I assumed it was a bunch of nonsense. Though with the gods returning, I can think of a lot of things I thought were complete nonsense were suddenly not being nonsense anymore."

"You know about it?"

The griffin nodded. "Yes. Mostly from stories, legends, and such." Her head moved around quickly. "My brother said he saw it, but he couldn't prove it. Ma tanned his hide afterwards, but I understand it now. The Rogues ain't to be messed with. Cub-Slaying scum." She spat though I wasn't sure how she got it to go as far as it did. It almost made it to my talons. "Sorry."

"It's okay." It wasn't often that I got to speak with someone like her. Though the ratio was definitely skewered because of my imprisonment.

"As I was saying, I don't know where it is. Sorry."

I waved it away with my talons. "No sorry necessary." 

The griffin nodded then stood up. She extended her wings out. "I'm sure I could find it. Though I would like a bit of help. Are you up to it?"

I smiled. "Of course." I stood up and spread my wings. A feeling that I hadn't felt in so long welled up inside me. Without thinking about it anymore, I jumped and let my instincts take over. Wind raced up around me and my wings gave a thundering crack as I flapped. Swift Song started to laugh. I turned towards her and she gave a burst of speed. So she wanted to race. I could race. I nosed into a deep dive then I opened my wings up to catch a burst of ocean air that tossed me high up. I used that to push myself ahead. This was fun. That thought struck me like a back kick from a wildebeest. For the first time in years, I could have fun. With that, I threw myself forward. Underneath me, Swift Song was trying to inch ahead, but my advantage was too much for her to win. We might tie, but she wouldn't be the sole victor.

At the end of the race, which had spanned most of the area around us, we sat down upon a hill for the rest. Swift Song laid down next to me. She was panting heavily. I placed a wing over her and she smiled at me. For several long moments, we laid together as we watched the sun rise. My wings suddenly felt like I would never be able to lift them again. The sun was Finris's and he was the one to draw from it. "So what is your mate like?"

I turned to look at her then. "What?"

"What's your mate like?"

It took me a minute to answer. "His name is Finris."

"Finris? He is a lupian?" I nodded. "You mentioned earlier that you liked them, so I took a guess."

"It was a good guess since he is. I chose him as my mate a long time ago. We raised seven wonderful children."

"So you broke up?"

I shrugged. "Not really. I see no point in that. I chose him to father my kits and fight at my side if the occasion demanded. Other than that, he is a good male and made good kits." That was the best I could hope for.

"That's a way to look at it."

I nodded. "It is. Did you have a mate?"

"Still do. Green Beryl and I got together about thirty years ago after both of our mates passed on. We were friends and it seemed like a good option. Ya know how the crown demands us to give it food? Well, the current queen increased the amount we got to give every year. The only way either of us could keep up was to combine families. Then she got her grandchildren when Red Ruby accepted a post in the Forest Clan. Now, we got to keep the farm and our family. It ain't easy, but it is worth it." That feeling resurfaced again though this time it was laced with something like sadness that I could not understand why. "Though you were asking about my mate before her right? His name was Strong Step. He was strong and caring. We did not always get along, but we managed well enough." I nodded. "Good man. Worked himself until he just dropped. Right there in the middle of the field. Light Spinner came in all a hollering." She went silent then and I moved in closer to comfort. We remained that way for a while as neither of us desired to move. When we did leave it was because the sun was shining directly overhead and her mate would be worrying. The rest of the flight was spent in silence as we both thought it over. At least that was what I was doing. I have no idea how she chose to spend her thoughts. We landed in front of her homestead and went inside. Silent Song told me where to find the guest room and helped me to open the segment of wall it was behind. I curled up and went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will go back to the champions though Tiamat will get another spotlight moment later on. I can't say when since I am not really planning this story beyond the barest bones of it.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has thirty eight pages. I am not posting chapter eleven for a bit.

I couldn't sleep. Kalima's words kept repeating in my head. What did make me capable of leading them? My ear flicked then as an itch started to grow along it. I raised my paw up to scratch at it viciously. I put down my hand and sat up. Kalima was snorting in her sleep loud enough to wake up the dead. I stood up and walked out of the room. Since I couldn't sleep, I might as well take a walk. Maybe get something to eat. Food always makes things better. My paws lead me towards the kitchen. There were snaps and slams coming from inside but that didn't stop me. I turned the corner and something exploded all around me. I opened my eyes and stared around me at the flour all around us. Jinx was staring at me with a wide smile and completely covered in white. "What were you doing?"

"Making cupcakes and coffee." Jinx nodded to a what appeared to some sort of torture chamber for liquids. "Aleksandr showed me how after Sofia cleaned up the first two attempts."

"What cupcakes or coffee?"

"Both." She smiled wider and some of the tension in my stomach eased. I shook off as much flour as I could, but in the end I was still as white as Caterina. "This is my best try yet. Last time the pot exploded. No one really knew how I did it, but I did and it was kind of fun. Aside from cleaning it up. That wasn't much fun." Jinx pulled something behind her and tossed me a towel quickly before taking one of her.

"Well, as long as you are improving." I looked around at the mounds of flour all around us. I hummed breezily and blue appeared around all of the flour piles. They lifted up and went back into the first empty container I saw. No need in wasting food.

"I am improving." Jinx started humming too as she looked around slowly. "So what'cha doing up?"

I looked around too. "Not much. I need to think."

"Ah, then you came for thinking food." Jinx smiled and bounded towards the white box. She opened and took out several things. "What do you want? We got-" she spouted off words so quickly that I didn't understand what she said-"and green jelly. It says apple and I think it is still good." She unscrewed the lid and sniffed it. It wasn't good according to the shudder she gave and the short gagging sounds she made. The lid was back on before I could blink. "Nope. Not good. Definitely not good. Bad. Very, very bad."

"Why would you sniff Eris fungus and expect it to be good?" I turned towards Finn, nervous that I was losing my touch since I didn't hear him approach. Probably, a trick he learned when he was younger. "It is commonly known to smell terrible."

"Why was it in the jelly jar?"

"What's Eris fungus?" I turned to Jinx. I was a little annoyed that I hadn't thought of that question, but Jinx did have her moments of brilliance. I was proud of her for each of them.

"Eris fungus grows in dark, damp caves with strong magic. Most of the time you have to go into drake territory to get them. Thankfully, I was able to find those without fighting off any of those barbarians. Now as for why it is in the jelly jar, I needed a place to keep them and it was there. So why are you two up so late?"

"Why are you up so late?" My tail flicked as I stared towards Fin. It wouldn't do to be rude to one so old, but at the same time I want him to know I mean business.

"I am connected to the rhythm of the sun. As long as one sun remains in the sky, I can draw power from it. Apparently, it gives me enough of a healing factor to regrow a body which I have done several times over the years." His tail was thumping against the floor. "So I answered your question. Answer mine."

"Couldn't sleep."

"I'm hungry and determined which is apparently a bad combination for me." Jinx was flicking her tail slowly as she stared at Fin. "Since I have wretched the kitchen three times. Just in the past couple of hours."

Fin nodded. "This kitchen can handle it. I've blown it up several times in the past moon and it just comes back like this." He looked around. "Aside from a few scorch marks on the walls that I usually paint over. I get a good deal because the guy in charge of the shop has a crush on me. Though his sister never stops pointing out the grandpa angle I got going on. I never really get it, but she laughs." His tail continued to wag against the floor and his ears moved downwards then up again. "Pretty sure his name is Anthony, but they say it really weird." He huffed through his nose slowly. "Nice people though."

"So you use your sex appeal to get things for free?" I tried to keep the bite out of my words, but even I could tell I failed. It just felt wrong to me. You have to work for things or they are meaningless. The words suddenly rang back at me in my head. I pushed my ears back for a second before I moved them back up. 

What had I done to earn my position as leader? Everything I had worked for seemed to be slipping out of my grasp now. I had struggled and fought to be first in training then to be the best warrior I could be but training isn't life. I may have the most combat experience out of all us, mostly because I am the oldest, but that doesn't mean I should be in charge. Though if not me then who? Fin would be the next logical choice since he is old, really old, but I don't think he leaves Sanctuary. Kieran would be the next best choice, but I can't tell him that. He was a good enough warrior, but he is way too snappy. Though the same could be said of me. Fay is a good warrior. but she is too submissive. She is happy to be second best to me even though we train together. Nix would be a truly good choice though he is also too submissive. Seraphine, Aleksandr, and Jinx were much too irresponsible. Kalima was a good friend, but much too meek and anxious. Caterina might be a good leader, but I hadn't seen much initiative in her. Lyra would make a good soldier, same as Fay, but I had not seen much to suggest she would be a good leader. Sofia could be a good leader, I had seen some potential in her, but she would falter in battle. Maybe we could make this a joint venture. Though we would need someone to keep it from leading into a free for all. That would be the best I think. I would have the group put it to a vote tomorrow as our first sign of true unity.

Jinx had moved towards the cabinet again and gotten down a large green bowl. Fin had a box in his muzzle while Jinx moved towards the spoons. She selected a large wooden one and turned back to the bowl. On the way, she took the box out of Fin's mouth and opened the top part. A flour contained in a shield that crinkled as she slid it out of the box. Fin walked across the room to the fridge and pulled out a white and yellow carton that said eggs on the side. He walked across the room to Jinx. She grabbed the carton from him then set it on the counter next to her. Next, Fin grabbed some yellow liquid from the cabinet. Jinx grabbed it then started to open the carton of eggs. 

I walked over to help her. She had always disliked eggs though she never said why. I had a similar distaste for them, but that had come from being around species that came out of eggs in my formative years. At least that is what Mama said when I had told her.

Jinx popped the carton open then pushed it towards me as she moved towards one of the cabinets. She opened it and took out a cup with measurements on it before she walked back over to me. I pushed the oil towards her as it was obviously what she wanted. She laughed slightly and picked it up in her magic. Her magic was a lovely shade of green mixed with yellow though now I could see flecks of black in it. Whatever Tiamat had done must have had an effect on her magic. "Can you crack the eggs for me?"

I looked towards the eggs then at Jinx as I realized that I had forgotten to do that while I had gotten caught up in my thoughts. "Yes. Sorry, I got caught up in my head."

Jinx laughed. "Don't worry. I do that too."

I picked up one of the white sweating eggs. "What? Get lost in my head."

Jinx smiled a little bit bigger. "Yes. On occasion though recently I have been spending a lot of time in Caterina's head. She spent a whole hour yesterday debating on whether or not Isis was a cool name. It was funny though I did not get most of the arguments against it. She was being very unclear. Though towards the end of it Aleksandr started thinking about pancakes which made me want cupcakes because they are so much better than pancakes." She looked down. "Do we have frosting? Because Cookie showed me how to make some last Mother's Night." Jinx had been elected as the lookout during our last cake heist. "It involves butter. A lot of butter."

"Are you sure that she was making frosting?" Because the last thing Jinx said Cookie showed her how to make ended up eating our house.

"Yes. She put butter and white stuff in a bowl with brown stuff then mixed it together with enough dried pepper to give a red heartburn." Jinx started to mine the action as she spoke. I smiled at her while I thought about how cute she was. My adorable baby sister forever and ever. "Then she slathered the cakes down in it. That was when I told you guys to come get them."

"Yeah. Nix got his tail in a knot when Cookie almost caught him." I smiled again.

"He should have ran faster. Though the food made it better. Food always makes things better." I smiled at her as she repeated my thoughts from earlier. Family will always be there for you even when the world is sinking away beneath your feet.

"Yes, it does." Jinx smiled at me then. Before I could do anything else, she had grabbed a hold of my waist and made a point that she was not going to let go. I hugged her back with a smile.

"Thank you."

I tucked my head into her shoulder. She seemed like a hard wind would take her away at any moment. "For what?"

"For rescuing us. Sometimes, I dream that you didn't and the roots grow around us until we are part of the tree. I don't like it, but it is better when you are there." She shifted and moved in closer. "I love you. You are the best sister ever." I moved closer as my heart started beating in time with Jinx's. It was hard for me to understand at times that Jinx was hurting too when she spent all of her time bouncing around. She was the happiness that keeps our pride together. Without her we would all surrender to the void and drown in it. I pulled her closer to me. We stayed like that for a long while until Jinx pulled away from me and I let her. She turned back to the bowl. I looked around. Fin seemed to have left sometime during the hug. "So would the bestest sister ever finally crack open the egg for the cupcakes?"

I laughed then proceeded to crack three eggs into the mixture. Jinx stirred it up. "How are you doing today?"

Jinx turned to me with a smile. "Pretty good. Most everyone has reached their heats though so it's going to get really emotional in here." She lifted up the bowl and looked at the bottom then placed it down with a shrug. "How are you?"

"What do you mean we are about to go into heat?" The empress said that the necklace would suppress our heats. Well, our mating season anyway.

"We are about to go into heat. There really isn't any other meaning."

"I thought we didn't get those anymore." That was the best part of the deal. I got to choose who I got with at my own pace without any biology involved. Well, minimum biology.

"We don't, but our body isn't used to it, so it still makes the pheromones-"Jinx pronounced the word slowly-"involved in it." She smiled at me as she continued to stir it. "They make us emotional for a week and go away until next month. This continues for the next six months while we get used to our new normal. Or that is what Fin said."

"You meant hormones right?"

Jinx scrunched up her nose then shrugged. "Maybe, he said a lot of words I didn't understand." She lifted her spoon up. "Does this look mixed to you? Fin said that this style would be a lot easier for a beginner like me, but the box doesn't say what the mix looks like done."

I stared down at the bubbling pink liquid and wondered how it came to look like that. "Pretty sure that it is something." Not sure what as it went in the bowl white. Maybe she accidentally added something from Fin's collection of science experiments in the white box. It could have something to do with the magic in this place just making things weird.

Jinx laughed. "I know it is something." She frowned at it for a minute before she turned around. "Looks like it should be done. Where did he say he kept his hot bowls?" She mumbled as she rummaged around underneath us. Finally, she found it next to the smaller box which made a lot of sense since it had little pyres on top of it. She poured the mix into each of the little holes in it then put it into the box. It glowed purple for a minute after she closed it then it opened itself back up. The rack inside of it slid forward and I heard a skittering sound inside followed by laughter. Jinx picked the tray out with a shrug. "They look good."

"What is going on in there?" I stared at the box as the rack pushed back inside it and the door slammed closed.

"Don't know, but I got my cupcakes. You want one?" Jinx grabbed a plate from one of the cabinets and set it on the counter. She tilted the pan upside down. "Why aren't they coming out? They always do when Cookie does it."

"I think you are supposed to grease the pan to make them come out."

Jinx wrinkled her nose. "Why would you put grease in cupcakes? It would taste terrible." She grabbed a hold of the knob on a drawer then pulled it open. A knife moved out of the drawer and towards the cupcakes. She took a hold of it then started to cut the cupcakes out of the pan while she hummed a happy sounding melody. It took a bit for work and a good bit of magic, but eventually all of the cupcakes were out and almost unharmed. We decided to ice half of the cupcakes and leave the rest plain like Fay liked. Though she preferred muffins to cupcakes. After that, I put a kettle on for tea since Kalima, Fay, and Lala liked it better than coffee in the morning. Jinx made herself a cup of coffee though she didn't drink it. It was for the best though since coffee made her sleepy. Sugar also had the same effect though the amount had to be a lot bigger than the coffee. Some tea also did, but a couple of them actually made her hyper. Even more than she usually was.

My ears turned behind me as far as they would go as I heard the sudden click of claws of wood or stone. I looked down at the floor for a minute before I settled on wood though this place was getting pretty strange. "So there is a party going on in the kitchen and no one thinks to invite me?" Seraphine walked into my frame of view. She had changed her hair now. It was shorter and curled at the ends. I must say that I preferred her old hairstyle. At least, it was the same color.

"This isn't a party. A party needs music."

"Neither of us could sleep and Jinx had a strong craving for cupcakes." Seraphine nodded then looked down at the plate before she snagged the closest frosted one.

"So what's in that pot?" She pointed towards the kettle then moved her hair back from her face. That's when I noticed her state of dress. Usually, she wore dresses of equal length to a uniform if in a strange style, but right now she was in an incredibly short shirt. It was white and stained in a couple places. She must have caught my gaze as she turned to me with a strange smile on her face. No matter, she looked good in it. "The pot on the stove?"

"Sissie is making tea. There is some coffee made if you want it?" Jinx pointed at the coffee pot. Seraphine hummed then walked over to the cabinet. She opened it and pulled out a black cup with orange spider webs on it. Then she set the cup down and made herself a cup of coffee. Two spoons of the thing Caterina called creamer, three spoons of sugar, and two splashes of milk inside of the glass. She put the milk back up then stirred the contents of the cup for a minute then came to sit next to us. Jinx started to mess with her hair. "I'm thinking of cutting my hair."

"Okay." I shrugged. As long as she was happy with it then I would be supportive unless it was terrible then I reserve the right to tease her about it. It is my duty as her sister and it is imperative that a Volcanic lady uphold her duty. "I am thinking that we should run the team like a democracy. At least in here. In the field we will need someone to have a plan." I looked down at my cup of coffee. Two bubbles resting on the edge of it.

"So everyone but me has something going on." Seraphine took a sip of her coffee then set it down on the table in front of her. "At least I am hot." I snorted and she turned towards me with a brilliant smile. "You get it? Because I was chosen by Phyrrah?"

Jinx leaned over and patted Sera on the shoulder. "Word of advice? Don't explain the joke. It loses all of its funny points." The Jinx snatched up a muffin and popped it into her muzzle whole. "These are pretty good." Jinx closed her mouth and swallowed the muffin. "Pretty good. Though it needs a bit more spice."

"Muffins are sweet not spicy."

Jinx leaned over and patted Sera again. "You have been horribly neglected in the taste department, but I will make sure you get the proper nutrients."

Sera glared at her for a minute before she turned to me with a devious look in her eye. "Have you tried the muffins, Delta?"

"No."

Seraphine pushed the plate to me. "Then you simply must try one."

I pushed it back at her. I would try one later, but I wouldn't allow it to be anyone's terms beside my own. "You are the one who was deprived of good modern food. You try it. It could even do you some good."

"Come on, Jinx would be disappointed if you didn't try one."

I turned to Jinx who was looking between us like this was a dragonball match. "Jinx is having too much fun with this to actually care."

"I do care, but I am having fun."

"See she wants you to have a muffin." Sera pushed the tray back to me. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the nearest unfrosted muffin, Icing was always too sweet to me though Cookie makes the best glazes that are just sweet enough. I was suddenly bored with this conversation though I didn't understand why. Probably something to do with hormones or something else that I truly didn't understand all that well. I bit into the muffin then. tt was pretty good though a little bit on the burnt side.

"You gotta eat one now too." 

Sera sighed and grabbed a frosted one. "Pretty good."

"I know. Third time was truly the charm." Then she looked around the kitchen. "Thankfully the kitchen didn't explode. I was a bit worried that it would, but it didn't happen." Jinx grabbed another muffin. She ate half then drank some of her tea. We fell into a comfortable silence as I ran out of things to say. Not sure about the others though, Maybe they were tired or something. I drummed my fingers against the table as I thought back over the melody I heard when I first came here. None of the others that I had talked to, Keira and Kali, had said anything about singing so it must have just been me. I lifted up my glass and took a large swallow of cold coffee. Jinx took a sip of coffee from her glass then looked around the room.

"So Kalima and Kieran were out pretty late last night?" Seraphine lifted her cup up and drank out of it though I could see the teasing light in her eyes.

Do not engage. Do not engage. "What do you mean?" Dang it. Me and my big mouth.

"They had a date last night and they didn't come home until noon though I am definitely sure that no mating occurred during it." Jinx smiled though she was a little less bouncy now as she finished off her coffee cup quickly. "Though no one says anything when Keira and Nix go off hunting together." She snorted then she yawned suddenly.

"That's because Keira isn't attracted to Nix at all." I smiled at Jinx as she started to rub her eyes. It didn't take much for her to pass out from coffee. One time, Nix gave her a cup and within ten minutes she was asleep. Though it was a lot less funny when he freaked out thinking she was dead. I think that was her first time drinking it or around that. We were really young then. Nix still had long hair, so it was within three months of their arrival.

"Well, both Kalima and Kieran are asexual." That was one of his strong points in my mind at least.

"Kieran's demi." Seraphine tapped her claws against the table slowly.

"Yes, Seraphine we know that you guys are demigods. You don't need to brag." I took a swallow of the cold coffee and almost emptied the glass.

She turned to me for a minute before she snorted. "Good one, Delta."

"Good what?" She apparently thought it was a joke. She stared at me for a long minute.

"You weren't joking were you?" I waved my hand. It was partially a joke, but I didn't understand hers. Seraphine sighed. "Demisexual people only feel attraction to people when an emotional connection is made. It depends on the person on how strong the bond needs to be. Though Kieran tends to be closer to asexual on most days. Though that may just be a sister's ick."

"Ick?"

"It's gross for me to think about my brother doing the dirty."

"Yep," Jinx said. "Very, very, very, ver-"

"We get the picture." It was meant to be a gentle discouragement, but Jinx shrank back in her chair. I leaned over and hugged her tightly as an apology. She tensed for a few though she slowly relaxed then hugged me back. Seraphine glanced towards us awkwardly for a bit before we pulled back.

"Well, I'm a lesbian what are you guys?" Sera was tapping her fingers against the table slowly as she looked around the room once more.

"Asexual. Mostly natural aside from a few weird feelings when I was young though that was usually when my heats were about to happen. I only got a couple before I found Eon." I wrinkled my nose. "Not sure right now about my romantic status. I'm pretty sure I am biromantic." I had a crush on Lady Astrid when I was younger, but that passed quickly enough. A childish infatuation. After that I had a crush on Corrie for about a month, but she ended up leaving so I got over it. Other than that was a couple wow that is a cute person, but nothing more. I never really did give romance more than a passing thought most of the time, because I needed to be the best warrior ever, so Mama would be proud of me. Now though it had been two years since training ended and I had defeated a goddess and been chosen to be a champion of Freya. A godling expressed interest and I do like her company even if she is a little bit strange. It was the best match I could do.

"I'm aromanic asexual." Jinx stumbled over the words then smiled at me. "And a darn good telepath as well." She said the last sentence to Seraphine who looked slightly embarrassed.

"So Seraphine has been having naughty thoughts?" I snorted through my nose. When I laughed for too long, it turned into honks though I don't know why. Mama says she thinks it is genetic since the seventeen curse breaking spells we tried didn't work. People tended to look at me weird when I started to honk, so I stopped laughing deep enough for it to happen.

"Yep and half of them are about you so consider yourself lucky."

I snorted again. "Wow, only half?"

Seraphine shrugged. "What can I say? My nether portal hasn't been breached in years." Kieran walked into the room with a grumpy expression.

"I am going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"What? You know it's true." Seraphine moved her hair back. "I have always had bad taste in women."

"Well, you got to admit. Medieval Europe wasn't really the best place to score a date." Kieran made himself a cup of coffee. No creamer and three spoons of sugar.

"What can I say? She was really hot though I do think we should have gone to China. I was hearing a lot of rumors about this hot chick there that led an army. Though the rumors that I heard made me kind of glad that I didn't meet her."

"That was a legend. Remember we went there and you spent a whole year pouting afterwards when the guy said so. Then we never got to see Mulan, because it brought up old memories." Kieran turned back to us and leaned against the counter while he sipped from the cup. "Same thing happened with Howl's Moving Castle."

Sera growled at him. "I told you not to mention him ever."

"Why can't I? It's a free country." Kieran's tail had started to lash then as he stared at Seraphine. "Just because you have problems with cute guys doesn't mean I have to."

"It isn't that and you know it. If people are going to be telling stories about me then they can at least get my gender right."

Kieran lifted his cup up. "You, me, and Xavier, but wanting doesn't change anything."

"Who's Xavier?" I had never heard anything about anyone named Xavier. Plenty of Alexandras, a few Cleopatras, and multitudes of Cassandras though those mostly stopped after Princess Cassandra was born. It was bad luck to name a child a name that was already claimed as it led to one of the children passing on. Some prides will reuse names, but only after the other person has already died.

"He went down in history as General Alexandra the third." Kieran snorted sharply. "This is what the Volcanic Plains does to males who actually achieve greatness. They erase them or change them to fit the narrative."

"I mean she definitely wasn't the one to potty train him, so was it-" Aleksandr and Sofia walked into the room and looked around.

"What's going on," Sofia said as she looked around. Aleksandr blinked then shrugged then walked over to the coffee pot. Kieran moved to stand behind Sera's chair. Aleksandr made two cups of coffee and handed one to Sofia. She smiled and nuzzled him happily.

"What were you talking about?" I looked towards her.

"We were discussing who taught Jason to use the toilet in the HOO series. I said it might be Reyna, but Aleksandr thinks it can't be her because you don't want to date a guy after you potty train him. It is apparently a biological thing." Sofia shrugged and took a gulp of her coffee.

"I don't understand half of what you just said."

"It's a book series," Seraphine said. "You should read it. It is really good."

"Wow, you read something."

"Hey, I had to pass the time in the prison same as you did." Seraphine hissed at Kieran who decided to go back to his spot in front of the coffee pot. He turned and hissed back at her. They continued like this for several minutes while the air grew tense. Aleksandr grabbed a muffin then retreated to the back of the room with Sofia. They started chatting about something I didn't understand and didn't really want to listen too. I turned to Jinx who was currently slumped on the table in a small puddle of drool. I stood up and grabbed Jinx. Seraphine stopped hissing to stare at me with wonder. I smiled and shrugged. I walked out of the room and into Fay's room. She was sitting on her bed staring down at a sketch that she was working on with aggression. Then she stopped and looked towards me. I walked across the room and placed Jinx down in a pallet on the floor that I had made last night.

"She finally went to bed?"

I turned to Fay as I stood up. "Yep, she made coffee."

She nodded. "Ah. That explains it. She always did get sleepy after she drank that. Did she tell you that she kept me up all night after you left? I managed to catch Humongous and released it into Kieran's house. Are you happy now?"

"Why did you release into Kieran's house?"

"The girl, what's her name, Frosty?"

"Frostia."

"Like the book?"

"What book?"

"Frostia: Legends of the Fairy Queen of Summer. I never did get into it, but that was all Doe would talk about when we were younger." Fay's tail flicked. "Anyway, she wants to know if we find any spiders. Apparently, she is breeding them with magic to make an army of giant spiders to annoy her brother."

A shudder went up my spine as I remembered the giant spider in the bathroom. "So that's why they are so big there. I always wondered about that." Not always more like a revolting thought that appeared in my head after a couple of episodes I had. When my life calmed down soon, I would have to visit Auntie Tessa for therapy. They were getting worse and I couldn't stand by while something dangerous lurked in my head that could be used to hurt my family.

"Yep. Monster sized spiders." Fay looked at me then down at Jinx. "Did she make cupcakes like she said she would?" I nodded. "Did she burn these?"

"Slightly, but we have eaten worse."

Fay snorted. "Yeah, we have." Memories of partial rotted meat and maggots ran through my mind causing bile to rise up. Sometimes, we have to do what we have to do, especially when food was scarce. Thankfully, I have never had to go as far as some of my aunties. I may enjoy the thrill of battle, but I didn't enjoy cold blooded torture for food or fun. "Stew cooked with bones for three nights in a row. Same pot. Worms we had to dig for while keeping an eye out of Rogues. The odd bird we managed to catch that the Rogues didn't steal. Occasionally having to eat carrion that we found that made us so sick we couldn't leave the toilet for days. Ah, it makes you appreciate summer all the more for the full belly."

"Aside from the horse flies."

"Yeah, but they are more of an annoyance than a danger." Fay's tail flicked as she stared at me then she stood up. "All this talk of food is making me hungry. Where are the cupcakes?"

"In the kitchen."

"Ah, thank you." She walked towards the door but stopped as it scrapped open. Kieran walked in, blinked at Fay for a minute before he turned to me.

"If anyone wants to know where I am, I'm heading off to a cafe with an old friend."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Kieran continued to look at me coldly. "Ayala wanted to go to the market place around here to get some clothes. I am going to go with her to make sure she doesn't get scammed."

"Around where?" This place wasn't big enough to hold an entire market inside it.

"First, we are going to go to the Icy Mountains then into Petopia for a bit after that we are going to hit up the Siren Island before making it to Sun Shine's Bazaar of the Bizarre in the Eastern Griffin Kingdom."

"It's the Griffin Empire now."rogue

"Why?"

"One of the kings went insane and declared himself emperor then he was assassinated, so his daughter took the throne. She decided to keep the title." At least that is what I heard from Rose Quartz. She had relatives there now.

"Prim became queen?" Kieran looked proud for a moment then his face went back into its icy state.

"Who?"

"She was one of my friends in school. That was back when they were trying to increase trade relations with us, so they sent her to make friends. She was so sweet. Really foul mouthed, but that was part of her charm. We went on a date once, but she left with the waitress and we agreed to be just friends." Kieran sighed. "I miss her sometimes, but Jin says that she is working with her if I want to visit."

"Who's Jin?"

"My niece's wife." Then his nose wrinkled for a minute before he cursed sharply.

"Language," Fay said grumpily.

"Sorry."

"What made you react like that," I said as I took a small step forward. He glanced at me.

"I forgot my niece's name."

"How can you forget your own niece's name?"

"Well, she is a lot older than me and only visits us on holidays. That was before we went a way for five thousand years." Kieran scratched at his ear as he glared at me.

"I forget that Mom has a name other than Mom sometimes." I turned to Fay. She was slightly smiling at me though she still looked grumpy. Her ear flicked slowly as she returned to her normal expression. "Once I thought that we had someone living on top of our house, because we got a letter addressed to Kagura. After a massive hunt through the whole house with Doe, Mom came home and cleared all of it up."

"I never got to do that. Someone was always calling for Mother when I was young." Kieran turned to look at Fay. "Though I did get to jump scare them a couple times, so it was truly fun. Did I tell you that I once had a playdate with a vampire kit named Rudolph. He was blue. His sister and him spent the whole two hours fighting over me before Mother came to pick up. It turns out that she dropped me off at the wrong address, but it was really fun there." His tail was twitching slowly. He and his sister never seemed to sit still even if Seraphine's movement were much more chaotic in nature then this. A ringing suddenly sounded. "Shoot. I'm going to be late. Remember to tell Doe that I will be back soon."

"Good luck on your date," I said.

"Try not to die."

I turned to look at Fay who shrugged at me. Why did she think up something so cool like that while mine was the lamest farewell ever. Kieran waved at us and walked out of the room. "Do you know who he is meeting?"

Fay nodded. "Yep. I managed to overhear him talking to a boy in the mirror, then I hit up Lala for information. It turns out that he is going to meet an old friend named Ink Drop. He is a teacher's assistant at the university in the Icy Mountains though he hasn't had the job long. He used to be in charge of the library, but he had transferred out of it into a janitor position while he earned his degree. Apparently, they fired the old janitor after a history of misconduct was filed against him. They even say that he was sent to the Queen for judging though Lala didn't know the name."

"So Lala found all of that out?" Fay nodded. "On her own." Fay shrugged. "Without champion assistance?" Fay nodded, starting to look annoyed. "Maybe we should move her into intelligence. She has the skills for it."

"Yep. I'm going to get some muffins. Want to go to the gym afterwards?"

"There is a gym inside here?"

"Yes. I found it while Sofia was in the worst part of her cleaning binge. I also found a library. It is so big." She made a low sound in her throat as she stared at me. "It has books I have never heard of by people that I only heard about in legends. It is the best thing ever. Also if it is possible can I take the week off?"

"You are still on bed rest." Which meant light training for a volcanic person after that it comes nesting which involves more straps than a dominatrix's mating life as my Aunt Vera would put it. It also had a tendency to last for months because of the muscle strain involved in getting to the point.

"Yes. Will I be then?"

"Possibly. Unless we are facing a god or something again. Why?"

"Fin doesn't visit me that often, so I can't ask him how much longer this is going to take."

"No, I mean why do you want next week off." I held the door open for Fay to walk through then shut it. We kept walking towards the kitchen.

"Oh. The Queen Diana Author is doing a book signing the Forest Clan, so I figured that I would go to that then use the rest of the week to go through the library before Sofia reaches it."

I nodded. "That's a good idea. If you see anything you think I might like would you tell me?"

"I was already planning to along with asking Rose Quartz to make me a couple copies of the books for my own use."

I laughed. We had reached the kitchen now. Aleksandr and Sofia stopped talking when we walked in. It would have been suspicious, but I figured they were talking more of the potty trained kit. "What are you doing?" A couple unfrosted cupcakes were still on the plate in front of them and they had refilled their coffee cups.

"Just talking. It's what makes our relationship so strong," Aleksandr said as he lifted up his cup then took a small gulp of it.

"As well as so weird, so do so at your own risk."

"Ah, Sof-Sof, I don't think we are weird." Fay grabbed a cupcake off of the plate as she looked between the two of them. "Has everyone told you that you look as if a falcon took on human, well Kanji, form?"

"That would be a Siren, Aleksandr." Fay took a bite of the cupcake. "I'm a kanji."

"So who just left?" I turned to look at Sofia. Her hair looked like it was damp from a bath and she had changed clothes since the last time I saw her.

"Kieran. He had a hot date."

"Wow, really? Two in two days? He is busy." Aleksandr drew out the sy in busy until it sounded like he was repeatedly saying the letter Z.

"He is meeting an ex-boyfriend of his for coffee." Fay finished off the cupcake.

Aleksandr sagely nodded. "Ah." He stopped and looked towards Sofia. "Two weeks and they are dating. Standard bet?" He held out his hand and Sofia shook it. "Pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise."

"What do you mean they are going to be together?" My nose wrinkled and I contemplated all the ways I could remove his liver with a dull spoon. A plastic one so it would hurt more. Though I would have to go to a bondage store to get things to tie him up in. Then I would be all over the news. The omitsu would have enough to detain me and I have heard enough stories about them to realize I did not want that at all, so I set aside my fantasies. Aside from number six which I will admit is my favorite.

"It's a very common trope for two characters to get back together after they spent a long time apart after they are reunited. Though there is now a subversive movement that is working to eliminate all of the old tropes by reversing them. Some people like it, but overall I don't care for it. It might catch my attention if anything about it was remotely interesting to me." Fay shrugged then grabbed the second to last cupcake. "Since most of it is scat that the Ice Queens thought up it isn't at all. I had to petition the magazine not to send that section to me. That spokeswoman made it way too complicated to do normally. If you ask me, they do that on purpose."

"Because everything is a conspiracy to attack you,"

"Not everything. Just most things." I snorted and Fay smiled at me for a moment.

"There are book catalogs here?" I turned to look at Sofia and nodded. We got it every month from Beryl, so she would work on them for us that month. A couple of times we would get junk mail from the Icy Mountains though. We never did find out how they got our mailing address though it became much more common after Ayala sent away for dress catalogs. I personally think that it was a radar system or spell.

"Yes. We get three a month though most are junk." Fay looked at me then down at the last muffin. She pointed at it. "Do any of you want that?" I shook my head. Aleksandr looked at it then looked at Sofia. She shrugged then Fay picked it up before she stuffed the whole thing in her muzzle.

"So what's the plan for today?"

I stared down at the top of Sofia's head then shrugged. "Lala, Doe, and Kieran are going to some fashion festivals. Other than that, Fay and I are going to the gym to work out. I don't know what anyone else has planned."

"I was planning on cleaning up more."

"I didn't know we had a gym."

"Fay apparently found it yesterday." I shrugged. My tail twitched as an itch started to grow on my hip that I itched at furiously. Fay nodded as her ear started to move slowly. "I don't know where it is though."

"That's okay. Lyra will want to know when she wakes up." Aleksandr shrugged then took a drink from his cup. "I was planning on helping Sofia clean then we were going to go to the store to pick out which type of furniture we like."

"Which store?"

"I don't know yet. Ask Sofia."

I turned to Sofia as she lifted up her cup to her muzzle. "Tia Victoria told me about it though I don't know what it is. I'll ask her before we leave though." She started to tap at the table with her fingers. Even though the movement was slow, it managed to catch my attention and hold it for a bit. My tail started to twitch faster as I stared. "Though we have plenty of time. Tia Rosa is dating the owner."

"So you are going shopping?" I turned to Fay. Her ear was flicking rapidly. "For furniture?" Aleksandr nodded. "That sounds boring."

"I am looking forward to it." Sofia turned to Fay. "This is the first time we had a clubhouse."

"Well aside from the fort that one summer."

"But a bear got in it, so we couldn't use it anymore."

I heard two sets of paw steps on the floor behind me. My ears twisted towards the sound. "It was 'possums," Lyra said in a thick accent. Apparently she got deep into it when she was tired. "Is there coffee left?" I turned to the pot. There was a small bit in the bottom of it.

I turned to Caterina. "There is tea you can have if you want it on the stove." She was wearing pink. The outfit she wore covered her like Keira's favorite training outfit though it was much looser. It had a hood and covered her feet. She moved closer and I could notice tiny rainbows between clouds nestled into the bright pink fabric. Lyra was wearing a long white shirt that reached to the back of her legs. The sleeves were brighter red than her fur which looked closer to orange in this light.

"Thank you." Caterina walked over to the stove. Lyra grabbed her a mug from the cabinet above her that she handed to her with a light smile. Caterina accepted it with a nuzzle to Lyra.

"Nice jammies."

Lyra turned to Aleksandr with a glare though it was Caterina who spoke. "Thanks. I thought they would be better than walking out in what I wear to bed." Lyra looked confused for a moment before she started to smile.

Fay looked towards me. "I'm going to the gym now." She made to move towards the exit though Lyra stopped her.

"We have a gym?"

Since I could practically see the heart and rainbows coming off of Lyra with that squeal, I made little effort to hide the snap in my tone."Why does everyone keep asking that?" I regretted it for a minute while everyone, but Fay turned to look at me.

"I found it while I was looking around yesterday. It is surprisingly clean in there. No dust. Very little cobwebs."

"Lucky. I had to remove a snake from my room." I turned to Aleksandr and snorted. "Not that big. I think it was a grass snake since it was green. Sofia named it Mistress Coco. Not sure why."

"Because that is what it looked like."

"Don't let Jinx hear you talk like that. She will accuse you of being racist against snakes. She is really big about them having feelings like Kanji's that can be hurt when we talk bad about them. It's the same with frogs. I personally think it is because Delta allowed her to keep one as a pet. Pets make people go crazy. My third cousin started collecting birds and before you knew it, she was turning Sirens into decorative statues for her garden."

All four of them turned to me. Their faces ranged from disbelief to morbid curiosity to thoughtful. The urge to connect suddenly hit me, so I turned to them with my best smile. "Yep. Nettie. She was crazy as a loon before, but she never got over the season of sorrows."

"What happened to her?"

"Malnutrition. The Rogues found one of our food stores. They took what they could then trashed the rest. The herds had all moved on, so we were all starving." I turned to Fay. "That was the year I got Nix and Jinx."

"Then about a year and half later, Doe and I moved in." Lyra looked down at the cup of coffee currently in her hand then downed it quickly. "Though we actually had more of a problem keeping warm than starving that year, surprisingly." All of them stared at me or Fay. Sofia tried to look towards me, but there is only so far that a non-Siren can turn their head so she looked at Fay. Aleksandr switched between Fay and me with a terrified expression though I could see hints of pity in his eyes. I hissed at him quietly. Lyra's face was blank though she had set aside her cup of coffee. Caterina had grabbed Lyra's hand tightly and was staring at me with something that I didn't understand in her eyes.

"It's pretty normal for us. Some years the herds run late, others they are early and the food spoils. Then the Rogues come and we still need food, so we have to import it. That leaves us without much of our warriors. Then we need to protect the shipment which makes it much harder."

"That sounds awful."

"It's normal. For us, at least." Fay shrugged then looked at me. "I'm done. Want to go to the gym now." I turned to her and nodded. Lyra picked up her cup of coffee then nuzzled Caterina.

"I'm going with you. I need to practice my shots again. I haven't in a month and I am getting a little bit rusty."

"You can't get rusty in a month." Lyra turned to her brother and glared at him for a minute.

"Yes, you can. Skills take time to learn and almost no time at all to unlearn." I stopped moving then turned back to them. It was rude to talk to someone without facing them.

"Spanish," Sofia said. Aleksandr opened his mouth then shut it. He shrugged then picked up his cup to drink from it then set it back down. "And that only took three months."

"I'm just not made to remember languages."

"That's what Lyra says about math."

"Hey, I am. It's not like I am ever going to have to use most of what I learned. Even if I did, I could use my calculator." Her tail was twitching rapidly now.

"You just aren't trying hard enough."

"You just aren't trying hard enough at archery." Lyra mimicked the tone that Aleksandr had used perfectly then stuck her tongue out at her.

"I'm not built for it. You need to be in much better shape to draw back the string then I am in." He stuck his tongue out at her again. "Plus it needs a lot more determination then I got."

"You are plenty determined at your games." She snarled though she smiled at the end. Siblings, I almost purred. "Just one more try and I'll get it. You've been saying that for the last three hours and saying doesn't make anything true. If it did then I would be taller than you already." Lyra turned to me suddenly. "I'm barely over five foot here. No matter what I do, I can't get taller."

"Wear wedges," Caterina said before she took a drink from her cup.

"That isn't real height."

"And they are really impractical for our job. You could break a leg." My ear twitched slowly as I looked between them.

"Not the good kind either."

"There is a good kind of injury?"

"Caterina is a theater nerd. Break a leg means good luck there. I think it is pretty messed up, but it makes sense that someone would want you to fail so they can get your spot." Lyra stared towards Caterina with a smug expression. Caterina stuck her tongue out.

"Theater people are a second family. No one actually wants anyone to mess up. It drags down the whole show. In fact this reminds me of this one time that Cynthia forgot to bring in the costumes for dress rehearsal. Thankfully, we still had some left over costumes from the last play. It was hard to take Hamlet seriously when he was waxing on about his life in a lion costume." Caterina smiled at me then turned to Aleksandr. "Then you were late with the playlist so we couldn't do the whole play in time. You didn't say why though."

"I took him to feed Bennie."

Caterina nodded. "You were late because you needed to feed a 'gator? That's the excuse you are going to go for?"

"Technically, Sofia was the one to make the excuse. And the play went off without a hitch. Even if I did miss Even in a lion suit talking about his happy dagger."

"That's Romeo and Juliet." I nodded. I could remember that part well enough.

"Even forgot his line and just went with it. It was pretty funny. Auntie Nettie has it on VHS."

"VHS? That still exists?" I turned to Aleksandr. He looked like he was torn between laughter and surprise as his dominant emotion. "I thought it had gone the way of the dinosaurs and Starbucks."

"Starbucks is still around."

"It is?" Aleksandr blinked at Lyra.

She nodded."Yep."

"Huh. Weird."

"Yep, really weird."

"It is the year of weird." Sofia managed to make it sound like a mystic prophecy instead of a cheesy joke that Aleksandr would enjoy. In fact, he burst out in laughter. Typical. Though he could be funny enough on occasion.

"I have no idea what either of you are talking about." I nodded to Fay's sentence. Caterina looked towards the cabinets then started looking through them while she muttered things I couldn't quite make out as she did so.

"Human world things. You know."

"Yeah, we figured," I said. Sarcasm just kept finding its way into my tone.

'Oh, come on. Like you don't throw open the door and welcome it in. You are kind of a biscuit eater, you know,' Eon said even though he was obviously not supposed to be in this conversation at all since it was taking place inside my head. 'Right, right. Serious Delta monologues. I definitely wouldn't interrupt. Just like you wouldn't want to interrupt Samson Rabbit.'

'He wasn't real anyway.' That rabbit had always freaked me out and it wasn't any prettier torn apart at the seams. Though I did get Auntie Mimi and most of the nursery kits at the time mad at me, I consider it worth it. Those dead eyes. I shuddered. Once something has crossed the line from well loved heirloom to demonic baby toy then it should be replaced.

'Like Kyra wasn't real?'

'Oh, you didn't just go there.'

"Is Delta alright," Lyra said. I paid her no mind as I thought over what my next response would be to Eon.

"Yeah. She and Eon are having an argument about an old plushie show. Not sure why, but Ryu thinks it is entertaining. I think it is hilarious that Eon called her a biscuit eater." Great, now my own sister was betraying me. And it was Fay to boot. Never thought it would go this far.

'Why did you say biscuit eater,' Ryu said with a giggle. 'We are big enough to handle bad words.'

'No, they are not. Don't let him lie to you,' Nya said.

'We are.'

'No.'

'Please?'

'No.'

'Please,' All three of the hatching started screaming at the top of their lungs and drew it out. Nya continued to say no. I drowned it out and returned back to the world around me.

"Come on."

"We were waiting for you," I could hear Fay mutter as I walked away though she quickly caught up and led both Lyra and I into one of the unused rooms. It was small and cramped with a small shelf next to door and an old swing style lamp. The door was marked with a plaque that said gym in Pantherian. The style of the words were a little archaic, but it was still legible.

Fay opened the door, held it open for both Lyra and I. She walked in then whipped her hand on her uniform. I looked around the room. It was large with a circular ceiling. Along the top of it was a series of iron bars that criss crossed along it. Part of it came down between two pillars of the wall. Here and there were weapons, climbing things, a white circle painted in the middle of it with a red padding on it, and a few things I didn't recognize. Fay looked around then headed towards one of the walls of weapons while Lyra started to walk around. I looked around the room before I decided to just do my usual workout to warm up then use some of the fancy stuff. I walked out onto the floor then leaned down on the floor to do my push ups. I kept my breathing level as I stared at the whitish grey floor beneath me. Then I started to count off each one I did. I made it to twenty out of a hundred when the door opened. I looked up to see Seraphine walk into the room. She stopped and stared at me for a minute before she walked up to me with her claws clicking on the floor. "I was informed that there was a gym here by Aleksandr and Sofia."

"This is it." I took another push up then counted it.

"Ah. Do you need help counting your push-ups? Because I can do that for you."

I rolled my eyes. "I think I got it."

"Okay. I'm going to go over to the weapons and see what they got over there."

"I'm not going to stop you." Another push-up was counted as I completed it. Good, now I just need seventy nine more. Slowly, but surely I made it to fifty. My muscles were starting to ache as I used muscles that hadn't been used in over a month. This was the feeling that I've wanted for the past couple of days. Heat was always hard to ignore unless it was channeled somehow. I looked towards where Fay and Seraphine were speaking to each other as they sparred.  
~Seraphine~  
Step, slash, dodge. Repeat. Good, again. Just like Julie said to. Out of the corner of my eye, I could watch Delta working out though most of my thoughts were taken up by not getting skewered by Fay. I was slightly regretting not asking Lyra since she would be less of a challenge though the volcanic part of my brain snarled at the very thought. "So I have been noticing you watching my sister."

I stared at her while I dodged her strike towards my ribs. "I don't recall staring at Doe. Ayala would probably kill me." Not sure that she would though I was slightly worried about it. I returned the gesture to her shoulder though she whirled away at the last second. She kicked towards my midsection and I dodged quickly.

"Other sister."

"Never looked at Jinx either." Now, I was kidding though I made sure that she wouldn't know that. Even if I wasn't joking, Jinx was a little bit too much for me. Delta would probably kill me with a rusty spoon if I even thought about it. I would probably let her, too. It would be kind of hot though I pushed that thought away for now. No need to let Fay get the upper hand even if this is only a sparring match. I side stepped her advance and deflected so that she hit the floor hard.

Fay stood back up with a glare at me. "You know which sister I mean."

"Nix?" Fay stopped and glared at me for a minute. "Not Nix?"

"Stop playing dumb."

"I am not playing. I am naturally like this."

"No,you aren't. No one is." Fay jumped, I dodged towards the left, and she hit the mat again. "Delta," She made a mild curse that I hoped wasn't directed at me since it said terrible things about my parentage. Though why Mother would bonk a dumb donkey was beyond my imagining,

"Ah, that sister." I smiled. "Do you really want to talk about this?"

"Not really, but I have been informed that it is my duty as second eldest." She shrugged then got to her paws. "So you want to mate with my sister and she seems to be accepting." She breathed in. "Treat her well and we'll be thick as litter mates, if you hurt her then you get all of us mad at you. Understand?" I nodded. Annoyance and happiness warred inside of me for several seconds while Fay continued to stare me down. "Good. Now, your game is off." Fay then spent the next six hours either teaching me stances or nipping me during a spar. Lyra eventually left about midnight yowling about lunch. Kalima dropped off food about thirty minutes later that Delta made us eat with her. Aside from that, I had no break until the sun rose and Delta dragged Fay to bed.  
~Ayala~  
Icy Mountains fashions tended to run the scale between terrible and good. This season they were finally getting into minimalism though that may have just been the fact that none of the people here looked old enough to hold any type of posts in court. Though they seemed to vary their clothes here. "So what do they call this place," Doe said? I turned to her. She was walking next to white male that Kieran brought with him. I couldn't remember his name though it seemed a bit familiar to me.

"This is the courtyard. The students hang out here when they don't have classes. Today though Honey Bee rented it for her final."

"Honey Bee," I said. Ice Queens tended to have strange names though that was more normal than the ones that Delta spoke about. "That is a strange name."

"Her parents were very-" He stopped and seemed to think over his word carefully-"lenient with her." His ear flicked. I looked away around the yard. People were crowding around us though most gave us a wide berth. A couple waved to the male and he waved back. "She is glad that they didn't name her goo."

"Goo?" Why would any parent name their child such an unfortunate name.

"Goo goo gah gah. Like I said, very lenient. Thankfully, she is an only child."

"That sounds terrible." A kit needs rooms to grow, but they still need structure.

"Not really. They decided that she was the only one they needed. It is very common around here. In fact most of my students are only children."

"No, I meant the fact they would allow a child to name their selves. Kits can't be allowed to do that. It leads to terrible things." Priestess named kittens and to do anything else was complete anarchy. A girl walked by with her hair streaked rainbows and braided. She had on a pink shirt with a red heart and a white skirt with large pockets on it.

"Hello, Vanessa."

"Hey, professor Drops." She waved and walked towards a purple booth marked with two giant red hearts and a teddy bear.

"Sweet girl. Her ma is pushing her into politics, but she doesn't have the skill for that. Though she has recently started doing an article for one of the school papers on the court. Her mother was very proud and even thanked me for finally getting her into it. Sadly, she didn't actually read the paper since it is a scathing review of everything the court is doing completely wrong."

"Don't you hate it when parents think they know what is best for their children when they only see them once a year." Don't you hate it when someone hogs the conversation with questions that aren't really conversations.

I smiled then walked forward to Doe. ‘I saw a display over there that looked interesting. I'm going to go check it out.’ I waited for a second for Doe to come with me, but she only smiled and waved, so I went over towards a booth with a rainbow on top. The male in there was taller than me with bright cyan hair that he had dyed up to his ears in, his clothing was messily done aside from the shiny gold ear ring in his right ear and the black on the edges of his eyes. Around him were head models with several hats on it. Most looked like they were more suited to Fay or Delta's tastes then mine though I did try on a couple. I decided on a light pink hat with a blue ribbon on the bridge and a small rose quartz on it. It went with my outfit though it was uncomfortable around the ears. Volcanic hats tended to have ear holes to put them through, but this one had none. The male asked for six shells for it so I handed the gold coins to him. They were called that because of the gold shell of each side. 

I went around each of the stalls though I only bought a few items. One was a large hat made of fake fruit that thankfully had ear holes, another was a pair of big rattles that I liked the sound they made when they shook, a book with fashion plate styles, a couple bolts of blue, green, and hot pink fabrics that felt nice, and finally crunchy bits from a food stall with a nice pair of old ladies running it. They were either sisters or mates from the way they argued with each other though I was polite enough not to ask them. I took my purchases with me back to Sanctuary. My hands were getting tired and I needed a place to eat my food that wouldn't end in my getting mugged and/or raped. War paths on an empty stomach is not something I truly wanted to do.

The main room was empty of people though it looked a lot cleaner now than it did this morning. A sharp scent lingered in the air, so I headed towards the room that Doe and I had claimed for our own yesterday. I walked in, set down the bags I was holding on the ground next to the bed, set the food on the bed, then walked around to sit on the bed. I picked up the brown things that didn't actually look that crunchy. I set it down after I grabbed one and realized it was still hot. While I waited for it to cool down, I looked around the room. It wasn't much. A bed big enough to fit two people if they wrapped up together, a light hanging from the wall, a small pile of baskets along with two mannequins with uncompleted dress designs. One was a light purple dress inspired by ancient grassland clothing with a long loose skirt, short sleeves, and a weaved belt in blue around the waist. The other was a blue dress inspired by mer culture. The bodice and waist was fitted and the skirt billowed out. The fabric was dark and hard to make since I needed it to mimic the scales of dragon scales. The stitching for this dress was the main reason it was unfinished while the other was a recent thought that I had to bring to life.

I picked up the plate again then selected one of the crispies. It had cooled down enough that it wasn't going to burn my muzzle while I ate it even if it was still warm enough to feel. I snapped it up. It was salty, kind of greasy, and didn't really have a flavor on its own. Grandmother would hate it which was enough of a reason to love it. I quickly ate the rest then stood up. I grabbed a napkin from the void then banished it again after I had wiped my hands. I crumpled up the plate I was given and placed it in the kitchen trash. I walked out of it and into the market place again.

The crowds had thinned a bit and the few that remained still here were spread out in clumps of three with the odd group having a bit more people. The fashions were now a bit more in line with what I had heard of the Ice Queens. One of the girls was golden from her fur to her dress. She was wearing shoes in summer. Why would you wear shoes if not to protect the pads of your feet from ice? Sometimes it gets so cold that the space between my claws would freeze solid and I would have to melt it by making a fire or break the ice with a tiny hammer that we kept around for that purpose. It has a long name that I honestly can't remember so I call it Zeus. I made a joke about it when I was younger though I forgot most of it now.

A mother walked by with her kit in tow. The kit had her hair in pigtails, her fur was a darker yellow than I would expect around her, and she was wearing her pajamas. She waved at me and I waved back. The mom looked towards me before her face morphed into a look of snotty disgust and she yanked her daughter closer to her. She snapped at her kit too quickly for me to catch it and Pinkie had skittered off after I got my hat to look for something for her to wear. I looked around quickly. I had already visited most of the booths and the one that I hadn't didn’t look like anything I wanted to go near. I spent the next couple of minutes walking around looking for Doe, which should have been easy since you would think she would be the only one here that was a brunette, but it took me finding Kieran to find her. A girl had started screaming about a snake that turned out to be a grass snake that was quickly dealt with by putting it away in a bush. At least that is what the blond male said when I asked about it. Mostly, I just followed the crowd and there they were. Sadly, we spent another half hour there while Doe looked for the snake since she wanted it as a pet.

Kieran led us to the portal station where a bored purple female gave us a few tickets to the Siren Islands. We had to wait for ten minutes in a large white room with a pile of magazines on the table. I flipped through the stack until I found a fashion plate from Zonya about six years old. Though I did like some of the lace patterns on it. Most of the colors were much too garnish for me to actually use, but they did have the really good lace there. Maybe, I should stop by Maybelle's to pick some up. It would look nice on the mer dress I was making. Maybe, I could stop by Lady Yuri's shop to pick up some clothing dye though most of the portals to the Griffin Empire were closed now though a few were still open if you know the correct people. Which I definitely did.

I flipped the page to an orange dress that was shaped like a pumpkin with a green headband that looked like a stem. Though according to the caption underneath it, Head Mistress Tessa wore it. This was an old copy. She had died six months ago from old age. My sources said that they think that she was poisoned with Rose wood leaves, but those didn't grow anywhere, but the old world. They tried to grow it here, but all of them wilted before they even bloomed. Delta apparently thought that this was a fascinating story to tell all of us. Though she probably thought the same when I spent an hour explaining why blue and plaid should never go together. Don't know why all of Grandmother's clothing turned up in that color. It wasn't like I had bribed Carlos and Icky Nicky, we were kits so it was funny then, to do it. Even if I did there was no proof that would hold up in court.

Doe tapped my hand, so I looked up. The portal had appeared in the tunnel marked with Siren Island Temple. I set aside the magazines and walked towards the portal.  
~Lyra~  
You know, asking your girlfriend's family for permission to join the family isn't supposed to end with a pregnant woman beating up a snotty woman in front of a cheering crowd. Only in my life could this happen. "What happened here?" I turned to the large golden griffin female next to me. "I leave for a quick bite and this happens."

"Well, It all started a couple hours ago-" The griffin lifted her paw and closed my mouth.

"I'm not interested in going that far."

"Alright. I wanted to ask permission to date Caterina since it seemed to be the right thing to do, looking back it was a terrible idea, then Mayura had to go to the bathroom. One thing led to another before we got here."

"A little bit more detail on that please."

"Fine. I was about to ask when the baby kicked her bladder so she had to go right then. We came over here. I waited for her by the door and when she came outside I asked her to date Caterina. Before she could actually answer me, the blond chick started up with the fact that I didn't deserve to become royalty. Then Mayura punched her in the face, the blonde chick punched back. A crowd gathered and that's how we got here."

"Oh. Well, this is exciting." She sat down then turned back to me. "I'm Corona. Who are you?"

"I'm Lyra." Corona nodded then turned back to the fight.

"So you are banging the new princess on the scene."

"What?" I sputtered for a couple minutes as my mind went completely blank. "We are not like that. We are too young."

"How old are you?"

"I turned sixteen a couple months ago." Aleksandr and I had a great party even if not a lot of people showed up. Mostly because we had a championship basketball game the same day. Zoe won, too. She apologized for missing it though I understood. I had missed a couple of my own parties because of track practice, a tiger getting loose in the zoo and I had to have it out with him, they got him back in the cage before I got there, and once was because of a demon possession that turned out to be a really bad cold and some accidentally eaten edibles. Grandmother was really mad when she found out. Funny enough, Caterina ended up getting the lead role in the crucible that week.

"When I was younger than you, much younger, I was getting some. Though that was because I was in heat." She shrugged. Why was I discussing this with her? It was truly none of her business.

"I have to go. I have a lunch date with Cat." I was lying then since she had gone off with Sofia and Aleksandr to visit Aunt Selene's store. I smiled at her then turned around and pulled to open the gate way to Sanctuary. Fin was sitting at the table with a mug of what smelled like tea. I closed the door.

Fin looked up from his cup."Did she give you permission?"

"No, but she started fighting with a blonde woman." I walked over to the table. "I left after that."

He nodded. "Okay. That sounds like it was an interesting day."

"Did you do anything today?"

"Nothing too interesting. Just had a talk with one of my daughters, apparently there is an increase in deaths recently."

"Oh, why?"

"Some disease or another. She wasn't talking about that though. It just made her too busy to visit now. Pity, I was looking forward to seeing my youngest grandpup."

I never really gave it much thought to if he had a family, but it was strange to hear that he had several children plus at least two grandchildren. Youngest implies that there is more than one because you can't be younger than yourself even if you could, people don't say things like that. "That must have been a disappointment."

"Yes, it was, Though I knew it was a possibility. She is very busy."

"It's still kind of sad." Fin shrugged. The tension grew for several minutes as I tried to think of anything to say. Finally, I pushed the chair back. "I'm going to get something to eat." He nodded and I headed to the kitchen. I went through the cabinets then through the fridge before I settled on a sandwich. White bread, mayo, mustard, white cheese, and turkey. I completed it, put the mayo and mustard in the fridge, then put the bread into the bread box by the sink. I walked out of the room with my sandwich. Fin had left while I had been busy, I was relieved though I quickly regretted it, so I went inside my room then sat down on the bed. I ate my sandwich in six bites then took the plate to the kitchen. I put it in the sink then went back into my room for a nap.  
~Sofia~  
Tia Victoria had led us to a large red bricked building just outside of town before she left us to tend to the farm chores. Since she had a passion for horses, she was the one to take care of ours. At least when she wasn't either working in her firm or advising the town council on the US laws we couldn't break. "We are going to look at furniture for the whole afternoon," Caterina said as she turned towards me. She had forgotten to brush her hair before we left so it was really tangled.

"Yes. We are going to do the clubhouse thing right this time. Especially since it won't get damaged in the rain." I looked over the building. Aside from the dark doors and wooden sign saying furniture in dark red, it looked like an old fashioned house like something from Fable or- Well, that was actually where most of my old house knowledge comes from which wasn't much. That and Aunt Erin's ranting about people's houses she has had to fix.

"We couldn't control the weather." Caterina shrugged.

"No one can control the weather."

"Not true. That is one of Set's domains, isn't it," Aleksandr said? He scratched at his head. I realized then that his hair had grown out a bit into a shaggy mop. It made him look so cute! "What? Do I have something on my face, Sof?"

"Huh?" I blinked. "No. I was just thinking how cute you were with your hair long."

He blushed a deep scarlet. Caterina sighed, rolled her eyes then walked up to the door, and opened it. "I was actually thinking about cutting it. It's been getting into my eyes a lot."

"Ah, but you are so cute like that. Why don't I braid your hair that would get it out of your eyes." I smiled as Aleksandr blanched at the thought. I had to suppress a chuckle.

"No thanks."

"Ah, but you look so cute like that." This time, I couldn't suppress the chuckle and it evolved into a full on belly rolling laugh.

"Yeah. Yeah. Everyone would laugh at me."

"No one would laugh at you. Lyra would punch any of them and they know it." She had done it to Missy Lewis in sixth grade when she called Caterina a blonde freak of nature. Of course, I got really mad at her in science when she decided to vandalize Aleksandr's rain forest project with glitter. I caught her and it was pretty much a brawl until Auntie Harriet broke us up then sent us home. Papi was proud that I won while Mama was mad that I had fought with anyone though she conceded that I had to when I told her the whole story. That was the best part about when your Mama came from an old Griffin Empire territory. Of course, that was before the King Novak war.

"Just what any guy wants to hear. His sister will fight his battles for him." His point would hold a bit more merit if he wasn't still red from being told he was cute. He had way too low self esteem. And he wouldn't go with my attempts to fatten him up. He would be just plain adorable if he could roll though. I would admit that I would tire of pushing him up hill.

"Fine. Then I will fight your battles for you."

Aleksandr blinked for a second, his face got redder then he smiled at me. "That would be kind of hot."

I rolled my eyes with a fond smile. "Erasable flirt."

"What does that even mean?"

"What? Flirt?" I smiled at him evenly even as a small laugh built up inside me again. "Surely I don't have to tell you."

He struggled for a few moments as he tried to pronounce it correctly. "The first word."

"Erasable?"

He pointed towards me. "Yes. That one."

"It's obvious. It means," I paused as I realized that I actually had no idea what it meant even if I had heard it several times. "I have no idea."

"Well, at least, we have that in common."

"We have a lot in common." I scoffed though I made sure to uncut it with a smile and a bump against him.

"Such as?"

"You really want me to list them?"

"Yes, please."

"Fine." I took a deep breath in.

The door opened and Caterina poked her head out."Hey, love birds. I will pick the furniture without you if you don't come in right freaking now."

"Oh, third grade swears. We are in trouble now." Aleksandr turned to me with a laugh. I followed suit.

"Big trouble."

"Everyone's a comedian." Caterina slammed the door closed.

Aleksandr turned to me. "I want to be a comedian."

"I thought you wanted to be an accountant?"

He shrugged. "That was three weeks ago. No one tells stories about accountants anyhow. It's a fall back career and everyone knows it."

"Huh. It kind of is, but you would be good at it. Though you would be good at anything you tried." I smiled at him.

"You are starting to sound like my mom, so we should talk about something else."

"Ew. Never say that again."

"How do you think I feel? I-"

"Hungry, I'm sure."

He nodded with a smile. "Yes. A bit."

"What do you say that after this we go to Uncle Saul's place for burgers and shakes?"

His eyes lit up suddenly and he nodded quickly. "Yes."

"Wonderful. We haven't had much time for dating the past couple of months." I flicked my hair out of my face then as I looked around. "Not for lack of trying though." I thought over all of the interrupted dates that someone had dragged us away from. Coffee at Aunt Jenny's, open mic night at Nina's bar, that was destined to fail when Carlos took the stage, studying at Madame Aubrey's, Jay Jay's aquarium. Though I still don't know why a shark would get out of the tank and start talking. He even wanted to be called Kenny which I think was a bit too far.

He nodded. "Yeah. Though it's going to be even busier when school starts back."

I shuddered. "It will. I might lose my perfect record. I can't do that. Will you cover for me?"

"Just tell them that it is champion business. I'm sure they will understand."

"But I will know. I can't get into a good college if my grades plummet." Never mind that I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to go to right now, I still want good options. "Then I will never get to have a career." Not sure what I wanted to be yet either though I was deciding between Social Work with a minor in business, Creative Writing with a minor in Psychology, or Psychology with a minor in nursing. It has always been my dream to get a doctorate. Dr. Sofia Lopez-Starling. That was who I was going to be and I wouldn't let anyone get in the way of the dream.

"You don't need a career. Anyone will hire you around here in a moment. I think you scare them a bit."

"We are a small community. People notice things." We moved towards the door. Aleksandr reached it first so he held it open for me to pass through. The first thing I noticed is that it was cold. Which was a welcome change from being outside. Louisiana was known to be hot enough to roast all of us inside of our cocoon of humidity. All of the furniture was arranged into six rows with the couches first, then the love seats, single seats, then the plain chairs. Along the edges were coffee tables. Caterina was talking to a tall golden haired woman wearing a red dress. She turned to us and smiled.

"Well, hello, darlings," She had a British accent and a lilting voice that reminded me of singers. "I will be with you in just a second."

"Oh. We are with her."

"Well, come over here. We were just discussing what you want in furniture." We walked over to her. She kept smiling at us. "Now, Miss Caterina says you are looking for things to fill an entire house?"

"Yes." I nodded. "We were recently granted a property in the old world. It's kind of old and dusty, but it is all ours." She smiled and nodded. "Anyway, we are just looking today. It's kind of a big decision." I smiled and didn't give into the temptation to squeal. Today was the start of the adult decisions that would shape my life for years to come.

"I understand. No one chooses something like this without much thought on the topic. So I think that we should start off with the couches then we can work from there. The couch is the first step to finding a room's personality. After, of course, the flooring and the walls. Though for that you will need Pandora's assistance since I don't sell those." Aunt Pandora had started a boxing company that she expanded into a thriving flooring, painting, and ceramics business. Which led her to my Tia Jubilee who had started a florist shop and they had been dating ever since. It was a very sweet love story that they had told me often when I was much younger.

Aleksandr grabbed my hand as we walked over to the first couch. It was white which was a point against it. It would be almost impossible to keep it clean, especially with the job we were going to go. "So what do you think about this one?" He turned to look at the couch and back to me. "White isn't a flattering color." He glanced towards Caterina. "No offense."

"Your white a-"

"Language," I said. There was no cause for language like that outside of the home. We had an image to uphold as Champions.

Caterina glared at me for several seconds before she turned back to Aleksandr. "You are much whiter than me."

"No, I'm not. You are the blond." Aleksandr pointed towards his hair then stuck his tongue out.

"Your skin is much paler than mine." I looked down at my own dark skin. They were both a lot lighter than I was, but that was to be expected. Though Lyra was only about a shade lighter than I was though she got that from her mother. Their dad is just as pale as Aleksandr was. I think it came from whoever birthed him.

"Pale is pale. I can't tell the difference." I shrugged. Both turned to me with a glare though Caterina's was much more impressive.

"So I am hearing that we are not going with this couch?" I turned to the saleswoman who was smiling at us. "Well, I will admit. This one is second hand. Just got it in from this nice old man. Can't remember his name. Julio, I think it was. Something like that. He didn't use it much since it was a gift from his ex-wife's family. Just had it redone. Lovely lady. Very sweet old lady. She said that she is going to make me a sweater too." She smiled bigger. It was starting to become unnerving. "So you are looking for something a bit darker. Tell me what we are working with right now?"

"Well, it is old. Grey. Dusty in weird places. Arches. No windows."

She nodded. "So you need something to brighten a room? Bright colors then. Nothing white. As you said, it is really hard to keep clean. Especially when you have date night. Now, I think I have something in mind. It's a lovely blue shade. A bit dark though you can get something lighter to brighten the room." She started to walk away as she continued to talk. Her hands were gesturing lightly around her. Her red heels tapped against the stone of the floor as she did so. We followed after her. Caterina was glancing around the room at the furniture. We stopped at a L-shaped couch in a midnight blue that looked very pretty. Under it was a dark green carpet, I could see a couple footprints in it. "This is very popular model though no one has decided to bring it home yet." The saleswoman gestured towards the couch with both hands. "So what do you think? Want to try it out?"

I looked towards Aleksandr who shrugged then walked over to the couch. He sat down and looked around for a minute before he bounced a little. "Comfy." I smiled and sang the big comfy couch theme song. The sales lady's eyes widened for a minute.

"I see that you need a moment alone with the couch. I will leave you for a bit." She walked away.

"What do you think that was about?" I turned to Caterina and shrugged. I had absolutely no idea at all.

"Maybe she is like the demons in the shadowslayer movie and can't listen to music?" I smiled at Aleksandr and laughed lowly.

"Shadowhunter movie and it was only one song that they couldn't hear, because it was made to show demons in human form." Caterina moved to the couch and took the seat farthest from Aleksandr. She looked around and crossed her legs. "This is a good couch. Do we have to stay with this one?"

"What do you mean?" I continued to look towards them for a minute before my awkwardness made me walk over to sit next to Aleksandr. Caterina was two seats away from me and was quite pointedly not looking at us.

"Can we see if we like this one best or should we stay here so the sales lady can find us again?" She messed with her hair though she didn't chew on it. That meant something was bothering her here or she didn't want to chew on her hair in a new place. It could be either one.

"I think we can walk around." I looked around then twisted a bit on the sofa. It was strange to feel sensations against skin instead of fur now. As well as not have to make room for wings to account for. Then there was the manner of not having a tail coming out of my backside. I had gotten used to all of these over the past couple of months form visiting Panthera. Caterina stood up and walked around the room. I stood up and walked over to the tables. We would need one for the new den wherever we decided to put it.

"Can we get a bunk bed?" I started for a second then turned to him.

"What?"

He had turned a light shade of red that went well with his hair."Can I get a bunk bed? I've always wanted one and now I have the chance to get one." He smiled at me and looked at me with wide eyes. "Please." He drew out the word slowly.

"Why are you asking me? It's your bed?"

"So I can get one?" He looked like a kit during the Winter Moon feasts.

"Who would you share it with?" Something about that turned my stomach in a feral way that I couldn't explain.

"You of course. I thought we could do a Ricky and Lucy thing."

I looked at him out of the side of my eye. "You know, they did make the beasts of twelve backs. They had a son."

He blinked then his cheeks turned a bright red. "Beast with two backs. I didn't mean it like that." He looked away then back to me. "I also knew they had a kid. Where do you think they did it anyway?"

I snorted. "They pushed the beds together then went on a missionary with no air travel."

Aleksandr laughed. "That's a good one. I need to remember that for Memaw. She is going to love it." He looked around the room. "So do they have bunk beds?" I looked around the room again then shook my head.

"They might be in the back?" He looked towards me then towards the back of the store. "I don't think they would like us going back there." And a trespassing charge will look really bad on my resume. Especially if I became a teacher. Oh, maybe I would become a professor so I could be Doctor Professor Sofia.

"It wouldn't hurt to ask? Where did the sales lady go?"

I looked around again. "I think she’s in the back." She didn't say where she was going, but it made sense to go there. I looked at Aleksandr.

"Okay, let's go back there then." We walked to the back of the store. We walked along the wall until we reached a black door marked with a yellow and black striped sign that stated Staff Room. I knocked.

"Excuse me. We have a question, ma'am?" There was a scuffling from behind the door. We waited for a minute before the door slowly opened just enough to allow the sales lady to walk out.

"What would your question be?"

I pointed towards Aleksandr. "He wanted to know if you have any bunk beds."

She tapped her chin for a minute before she looked at us with an even bigger smile. "I don't know. I am pretty sure that we got a shipment of them in. Why don't you stay here while I check?" I blinked at her as a warm feeling suddenly radiated from around my neck.

"We'll stay here." The sales lady nodded and once again opened the door, only far enough to get inside. The feeling changed as it reached my fingers. It was a cold slimy feeling mixed with dread, fear, and pain. I had to get in there. I grabbed the doorknob and started to turn it as the feeling grew stronger. "What are you doing? We can't go in there. It says staff."

"Something doesn't feel right."

Aleksandr blinked for a minute before he opened his muzzle to speak before he nodded. "Alright. I support you. Until we get in trouble then it was your idea."

"Thanks, babe." I rolled my eyes. The doorknob clicked and I pulled it towards me. A cavernous room covered in green pods along the walls and floor. In the center of the room was a large spider with a woman body covered in red feathers. It turned towards us. All I could think was that this was how it ended.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, that it took so long and that it is a bit on the short side.

"This is all your fault."

"Twelve feet up isn't a good place to be assigning blame." We had gotten captured almost embarrassingly easily by the spider demon walking underneath us muttering too quickly and lowly for me to catch. I looked to my left. A young demon was twisting in the pod next to us. "Anyway, we have to hope we don't become dinner for the babies."

"Don't say that. When you say it, then it happens."

I snorted. "That's just in books."

"Art imitates life."

"Sure, it does." I stared down at the rapidly pacing spider woman beneath us. She looked normal from the waist up, but below that she was all spider with a shiny black body. In front of one of the pods, she stopped and laid down beside it. Her arms went around it and she leaned in closer to the egg. I looked around at all of the eggs around us. Did she lay all of them? How would that even work? Which end would it come out of? Probably, the spider side, but I never know for sure nor do I truly wish to.

"Where do you think the father of all these eggs is?"

I turned towards him. "Probably in her stomach." Where would it even be? What would it look like? How long would it take to get this gunk off of me with a shower? I thought over these questions quickly though I couldn't find an answer to satisfy me.

Emotions crossed his face quickly enough that I couldn't tell one from the other before he settled on disgust. "Ew."

"Well, you did ask." I started to wiggle around, but the green goop rope kept me in place with my arms bound close to my chest. It was starting to get uncomfortable as a numb sensation went through my arm. Was that from not moving it or did this venom have side effects? "Is any part of you going numb?"

Aleksandr shook his head. "No. Not really. Just a rushing feeling. At least, I can be sure that it is in the big head this time."

I laughed even though I knew the joke wasn't that funny. Something about this situation lent itself to dark humor. That must be why Volcanic people tended to have a dark sense of humor. "Don't sell yourself short."

"I can't sell myself. It's illegal." He was twisting around like a fish on a hook. "And I wouldn't last in jail. I'd end up with some child molester gangster and become addicted to drugs."

"No, you wouldn't."

"How do you know? It could happen."

"Everyone knows that putting a child molester in jail is like putting him in the Volcanic Plains. He won't survive either."

"But I would end up on drugs?"

I shrugged as much as I was able to. "I don't know. I've never been to any jail." The closest I got was watching cop shows with Grandmother as she crocheted and taught me valuable life lessons. My favorite had to be when she taught me how to make dynamite out of a sparkler, because I didn't think it would work. Then we spent hours blowing up old things that we had stashed in the attic a while back. Mom was mad at us for that, but there wasn't much she could do aside from ground me for a couple weeks. Grandmother was in charge of the family.

"Neither have I. Though everything I hear about doesn't recommend it to me."

"Don't worry, you would only go for white collar crime, so you get to go to the good ones that have tennis and tanning beds."

"That's a resort."

"Yep. It's a rich people's jail. In fact, I think you have to pay to stay there."

"Where did you hear about this?"

"Some show or another." I shrugged. "Maybe the news. I honestly can't remember." I stared up as I saw the green slime start to creep down my stomach towards my belly button. "Is this thing growing?"

"It's what?" Aleksandr squeaked sharply and started to twist around frantically. Words fell from his mouth that I assumed to be curses, but they weren't in a language that I understood. "Oh, god. This is bad. Really bad. Really bad. Gotta think. Think."

"Are you talking to me or to you?"

"Me. Though I would like it if you also thought up a plan."

I growled at him. "All of the blood is rushing to my brain. This isn't a good way to think." Okay, I have to find a way out of this or we are going to turn into spider people in pods. I think. What would happen to us? Probably we would be suffocated by the green goop. "What is keeping Caterina? Our battle wasn't exactly quiet."

"This room is probably sound proof." The spider woman stopped and started up at us with an expression filled with hopelessness as she took out a mirror for her pocket. She walked over to the wall and set it there. The small pocket mirror started to grow into a full snow white style mirror with a dark sheen on the surface and silver around it. The spider bustled around the room gathering first tall black candles from one of the drawers behind a pod, then a bronze bowl that she set in front of the mirror with the candles on either side before she took on a human disguise to exit the room. We tried to scream when the door was opened, but she slapped some of the goop on our mouths that dried quickly and resembled cement in feel. I should have carried sugar with me. Sugar prevents cement from drying according to Antoinette who apparently did some anarchy dealings back in the day with Grandmother. We hung there until the spider woman returned holding Caterina. She placed her on the ground then blasted her with the green goop too. The spider went over to the mirror now.

She lit the candles then started a chant that reached my ears as sound without words. Slowly a dark light filled the mirror, the candle flames turned black with purple ends and shot up towards the spider woman's torso that was significantly larger and taller then it had been when she was pretending to be human. A face flickered in the mirror: A human woman with dark skin, black hair, and sharp features wearing a bronze crown on her head that changed to a snake to a kanji version of the human form then finally a griffin with a mane of black feathers and a sharp beak. 

"Ah, my dear Charlotte." The woman had a voice like a melody with a light accent that I didn't realize. Somehow, everything seems louder now."I was starting to think that you had betrayed me." Her voice had changed drastically at the last line into a fearsome screech. "I am so glad that it proved untrue." Her eyes were gold, I realized, but they weren't golden like Aleksandr or Lyra's eyes, no, they were gold like Sekhmet's eyes were red. Her pupils were boiling pools of molten gold that dripped down her cheeks in a steady stream. "Now, tell me, why have you called me? It better be good or I shall have to make Trisha my new second in command."

"My queen." Charlotte bowed low. "I have found three of the new champions."

"Oh." The silence caused by that one word stretched out before us. "Which ones? Remember, your answer will determine if I care enough not to replace you with one of your brood.” The voice turned coy. “ Maybe this time, I will go with a male."

Charlotte shrank back then looked up at us. "Erika's." There was a slight change in the woman's expression before she waved for Charlotte to continue. "Set and Lupa's."

"Well, well. Not a disappointment, but you could have done better." A chain of black formed around her throat. "I expect perfection. Though I might have forgiven it if not for your more recent failure." Charlotte clawed at her throat before a sickening crack came from her throat. Blood bubbled out of her throat. "Oh, lovely. She is staining perfectly good marble." She turned to us and stepped out of the mirror. Her body was more feline then avian though everything about her suggested violence was about to happen. She turned towards us. Black formed along the green. I barely had time to worry before the goop had loosened enough for both Aleksandr and I to drop to the floor. Pain traveled along my head and started to pound, but thankfully, I didn't smell blood. I heard a groan and turned to see Caterina start to stir. "Oh goody, she is awake now. No thanks to you dearies." She smiled at us again before she turned back to Charlotte. Her dark blood was pooling around her. "Now isn't that such a pretty color. Shame I didn't think to put something down. My pretty petunia's so do love it when I water them." Aleksandr coughed and moved closer to my side on all fours. I staggered to my feet and Aleksandr soon followed.

"Who are you?" I stepped towards her carefully. Each pawstep seemed to have an echo of their own. She turned towards me slowly, her expression was what someone looked like an ant she couldn't wait to crush under her heel.

"Me, dear child?" She fluffed up her chest feathers. "I am the Night Bringer, Destroyer of light, heiress to the title of Night Mother and the charming spider demoness you just killed was Charlotte, one of my lovely minions." She leaned closer to the mirror. "It was lovely to meet you. Now, I wish for you to pass along a message to my fair sister Tiamat. The game has reached its match with the clicking of the clock on the third day of the solstice. Meet me where the bluebell's bloom from the grave of Kappa slain and we shall see who the Night has chosen for its truest heir." She smiled then. "Was that too much for you? Do you need me to repeat it? I could write down in poor Charlotte's blood for you, so you won't forget?"

"No. No thank you. I think I'll remember it." I just had to find Tiamat.

"Good. You will find Tiamat in the hall of one of my blessed friends. Heed the bat born neither or." She laughed. "You know what? I'll just tell you. That sounded stupid even to me. First time in quite a while I have ever been foolish."

"Do you enjoy riddles?" I stepped between her and Aleksandr as she turned to look at him as he spoke.

"Oh, yes, I do. Very much so." She laughed, a high, haunty sound that bounced off of the walls. "Though I would think a gentleman would know better than to interrupt a lady." She moved towards us slowly with an almost seductive quality to her. "I shall allow it. Since this is your first offense." She stopped about a foot from us. "Don't think this can be a regular occurrence though." She turned towards Charlotte again. "You've seen how I reward disrespect." Suddenly a light happy jingle rang through the mirror. "Oh, school's out. Wonderful. My little darling is home." She turned back to us. "Talk to Hex. She's a bat hybrid. She is in the Swamplands if I remember correctly. Well, to da loo." She chuckled and walked back towards the mirror. A black flash appeared as she stepped through. The mirror shattered into million pieces after the end of her tail had passed through.

A cold feeling had resided in me since I first saw Charlotte's body hit the floor, but the feeling was replaced. Sobs built in me and I moved closer to Aleksandr. He hugged me tightly to him as I sob all of it out. "What are we going to do? It was, it was, just horrible. I can't."

"Shh," He moved his hand along my back. "It'll be okay."

"No, it won't."

"I have no idea." 

I took several gasping breaths as the sobs worked their way through me again. "That's not very comforting."

"I'm not good at this."

"No, you aren't. I love you though."

"I love you, too." We stayed like that until I had worked everything out then we turned to Caterina who, beside from the rise and fall of her chest, looked like she had died. Aleksandr held up her while I worked at bringing the door to us which took much longer then I would admit too. We put her in her room here then set about looking for Fin when we realized Kieran was still out.  
~Caterina~  
Pink wasn't my color. Never was, never will be, so I will not ever know why my subconscious decided to drop me into a pinked out room wearing a pink monstrosity that would put anything Doe wore to shame. "Well, it is about time you showed up, darling. I was starting to think you stood me up." I turned around slowly, making sure all of the way around not to step on the edge of my dress, because once I did I would be down for the count all together. I stopped and stared at the blonde woman in front of me. "Well, sit. You have already made me start late." She picked up a pot decorated with red hearts from the pink table. Something about her reminded me of someone, but I couldn't remember exactly who.

"Who are you?" I sat down on the other chair and looked straight at her. I was passed being rude now.

The woman sighed and set down the cup in front of her. "I should have expected that. Myra was a bitch while we were growing up." She took a breath in and turned her head fully towards me. "I am Anastasia, your mother."

I blinked then nodded slowly. This was a very weird dream. "Ah."

She smiled at me delicately then picked up the tea pot. "How do you like your tea?"

I thought over it for a minute. Tea wasn't really my favorite thing to drink, especially when it was hot. I did like sweet things though. "Three spoons of sugar."

"Cream?"

"No. I'm lactose intolerant." And I loved cheese cake, so freaking much. It hated me though. It was actually how I figured out I was lactose intolerant. My birthday and Aunt Seraphine decided to make me a cheese cake. Between it and the chocolate ice cream, I had a wonderful time during pin the horn on the alicorn. Most of it was spent in the bathroom with the third worst cramps I have ever had and the rest was spent curling up with Pookie Bear on my bed. Lyra came looking for me after about an hour or so and we had a snuggle until it ended. Of course, that was back when I didn't realize I was crushing on her. Though I was pretty obvious about it when I looked back. Wanting to marry your gal pal was pretty gay.

"Oh." Her smile faulted as she put in three spoons of sugar in a cup then poured in the tea. She handed it to me. "Here you go." I took it from her then set it down in front of me.

"Why am I here?" I moved my hair back behind my ear.

"You got bit by one of my old friends. Lovely girl. Great in the sack."

"Gross."

"Eh. I was young and she was cute." She looked at me as she shrugged. "We shall have to do this more often."

"Aren't you deader than dead?" That came out harsher than I had wanted it to. That was what I had been told by Aunt Serafina when I had asked.

She laughed then she stopped to stare at me. "Oh. You are serious."

"Yes." I hissed out the last letter.

"Ah, you look just like Al when you do that." She stopped then scrunched up her nose. "Except that you are white and female. But it was the exact same face. Just adorable." She was literally squealing at that. I waited for her to stop. "Right, right. No, I am not deader than dead. I was trapped in a statue by Myra. Not the worst way to end a throne duel, but it does get really lonely in here."

"Wait, Aunt Myra turned you into a statue?"

She nodded. "Yes. It was Mom's signature spell." She snorted. "Myra always did have a flair for the dramatics."

"So you are stuck in a statue." Could she pee in here? I shook my head as I realized I was spending way too much with Aleksandr if that was my first thought.

"Yes. Though I have found a way to make it a bit more roomy than it used to be. I even have a bed now. That is really new since I just found a way to make one last week. Before that I slept in a heap on the floor." She looked around the room. "Of course, that is still better than my first week when I didn't know how to manifest a bathroom. My fur got really nasty." She kept smiling as she set down her cup. Something about her smile seemed strained though I couldn't tell why. I was never any good at emotions. She tilted her head then looked back towards me. "You are about to leave. I will be sad to see you go, but we will be together soon. Myra is already working on something to get me out of here. Not sure if it is going to work, but I can feel the bindings weakening, so it should be too long."

I honestly didn't know exactly how I felt about that. She was technically my mother, but I hadn't even met her before today. How was I even supposed to react to this? "Okay."

Her smile turned a bit sad. "Can't say I expected much better. We will have more time to bond after all this. I swear it." Her ear twitched slowly. The room started to blur, I blinked then I opened my eyes.

Fin was standing above me. The ceiling was grey, I was on something sorta soft and I was on my back. "What happened?" I moved my hand around to make sure I could.

"You got bit by an arachnid demoness under Reyna's control." Fin stepped back.

"I remember that. What happened afterwards?"

"Oh, well. Sofia and Aleksandr brought you back here and I healed you well enough of the venom."

"What do you mean well enough." I struggled into a sitting position, my tail always ended up under my butt, so I had to move it quite forcibly up around my waist like a furry belt. 

Fin looked away. "Well, this is my first attempt at curing someone of demon venom, so it was pretty touch and go for a bit. I actually had to call in a bit of help."

"What kind of help?"

"My granddaughter. Wait, no. Great-granddaughter. Babies have babies in the time it takes me to finish my work, you know?"

"No, I don't."

He smiled. "You will. If you survive long enough."

"That doesn't inspire confidence." He tilted his head then shook it suddenly like the furry white dog my Aunt Yvonna has. Very nice even though I was pretty terrible to him when I was younger. Just kit stuff though, you know, grabbing his ear to pull, trying to ride him like a horse. He tells great stories about when he was a young pup in the alps. I'm pretty sure he is just messing with me though or he has gone senile since he was too young to one of those Saint Bernard. Fin was staring at me now as if he expected me to remember what we had been talking about like I hadn't been thinking. "What were we talking about?"

Fin opened his mouth then closed it again with a confused look. "I don't know." He looked towards the door then stood up. "I really should be going. I left Frosta with a bubbling skorf floot on the stove and I really don't want it to go off."

"What's a skorf floot?"

"It is a rare fruit that I found in an ice cave a while back that I wanted to see if I could make into something." His tail started to wag. "I'm thinking that if I combine it with some rosemary, nettle, and flecks that I will finally have figured out that orange paste that Icemane used to make when I was still a young pup."

"Wasn't that a title for a Kanji leader?" I had to write out that for vocab often enough to remember it.

"I was adopted. Long story." He shrugged and moved back towards me.

"Okay." I decided that it was best not to get into it especially since it seemed like something he didn't seem to want to talk about. Nosiness did not go over well in school especially when most of the girls were raised not to be emotional and the other half were trained to cry at the drop of a hat without giving away their position. It made playing card games very hard when we had slow days and we weren't allowed to bring board games after Zoe beat up Stacy over boardwalk. Adrian had a whole speech about how they weren't actually important in the long run, but Zoe just told him to shut up. Then Aunty Mia told her not to say that and it started a huge argument that ended with all of us getting detention even though I didn't do anything. Neither did Elizabeth, but she liked detention for some reason so she would protest it with me. Lyra was willing to protest with me, but she was one of the main people involved so it didn't do much.

"Yep." He looked away then stood back up. "I really should go. If I see Lyra, I will send her in here, but you should really get some rest."

I huffed and rolled my eyes. "I'm feeling fine."

"We have no idea how the venom or antidote will affect you, so you are on bed rest."

"Fine." Far be it from me to argue with a lazy day, especially when it was necessary. If Lyra shows up then it would be even better. "Are Sofia and Aleksandr okay?" I knew that they were well enough to get me back here, but other than that I have no idea what that Spider woman did to them.

"They are fine. A little bit in shock and a little mental trauma from it, but they will be fine." His ears pressed back for a moment before they returned to their normal forward facing place.

"What happened?"

"Well, Reyna decided to kill Charlotte, because she is a psychopath and she enjoys it. Then she gave them a message for my ex-mate who I thought was dead until Jinx informed me otherwise and we have no idea where she is."

"So a lot happened while I was under?" My brain was starting to buzz slightly as I thought it over. Not sure why it was doing that. Probably a headache or something like that.

"Yes, it did. Though not as much as when I slept through the third battle of Yarrow's Bend. Tia teased me about it for weeks afterwards."

"Lyra does that to me too. Once I even slept through a hurricane that took down the tree across the street. Aunt Jenny was really mad about that, but what can you do? When nature wants to blow, she's going to blow."

Fin blinked then shrugged. "I don't know who that is, but I can understand that. Titania- I mean Erica now- has weather moods."

"Titania? Isn't that the Fairy Queen from Midsummer's night dream?" That was Aunt Gertrude's favorite play, so we had to read it then we watched it in class. Of course that was back in the sixth grade, so my memories were a bit fuzzy. I remember someone got with a donkey, because Aleksandr thought it was hilarious and mentioned it for months afterwards.

"Yes." He smiled quickly then dropped it just as fast. "That was Set's fault mostly or was it Bastet's?" His muzzle scrunched up as he thought it over. "I honestly can't remember. This is what happens when you get old. You never remember anything."

A light knock came from the other side of the door. "Gramps," A voice I instantly recognized from our few meetings as the young kit from the Eternal Fields of Punishment. "Is the green thing supposed to turn orange and start fizzing?"

Fin jumped up with a yelp. "No, it isn't." His tail was twitching and his ruff had stood up like one of those old fashioned England collar things.

"Well, it did and it won't stop."

He took off towards the door. "Sorry this is an emergency."

"Yeah, I understand." Plenty of Aunt Serafina's culinary experiments had ended up like this. "Take all the time you need." He reached the door and opened it. The girl stepped back. He was slightly taller than her.

Her hair was striped with hot pink instead of purple, but she looked about the same. She looked at me then walked into the room. She sat down beside me. "Hi, I am Frosta."

"I know. You told me before."

Frosta looked confused for a minute before she shrugged. "Sorry, it's been a long couple of months. I've meet several thousands of people since then." Her ears kept flicking. "I have actually had to hold court a couple times." She shifted towards her right then started messing with the hem of her dress before her hand moved up to the black headband on top of her head. Her ears flicked towards the red ears on the band then moved back.

"Hold court?" For a moment the image of her as Judge Judy blared through my head then it ended just as quickly.

She leaned forward and twisted her tail around."Judge the dead. Listen to a couple of guard's complaints then send them to the correct people to handle it. That sort of thing. Mama says it is going to slow down soon. Though her soons can mean anywhere from a couple hours to five thousand years." She shrugged. "I'm used to it by now."

"Why are you guys so busy?"

She shrugged then she smiled. "Well, Mama is just one person, so we had a bit of a backlog from when she was in charge. That is without the several plagues in the colonies over the years, the Rogue wars, all that you know. We even had to get Jazz to find us some people to take over for a bit." She started to make a light clicking sound as she looked around. "Of course most of them were much too incompetent to last long, so that just ended up causing more work." She smiled. "Though Jade and Jazz had to come get them, so I got to spend time with them while they were there."

"Jade and Jazz?"

"My sister and her wife." She smiled at me again. "They did my hair this time. Do you like it?" She fluffed up her hair with another smile. Her ears were twitching slowly while her tail moved light from side to side.

"It is very pretty."

She nodded. "I know. My purple was fading, but I was getting tired of it since I've had it like that for the past hundred years so I chose red this time. Next time, I'm thinking blue." She cocked her head to the side and stared at me quizzically. "Have you ever thought of dying your hair? You would look really good with grey streaks."

I blinked as I thought it over quickly. "No, not really. Plus school won't allow me to do it anyway. It was one of the district things that we can't just ignore. Apparently, it is considered distracting though I think they are just closed minded."

She blinked at me. "Which of the colonies do you live in?"

"Briar Creek."

She giggled. "Section Four, Quarter seven. That one has quite the nasty plague going around."

"What? It does?"

She nodded. "Yes. It is to be expected though." She looked at me then blinked as something passed over her face. "It shouldn't affect the colony that badly. Uncle Sol is looking into it, so it should be around much longer." Everything seemed to be piling around me now. A plague, meeting my mother, getting attacked by a spider demon straight out of a bad anime. Frosta stood up with a bright smile. "I really should be going. Mama is expecting me back for supper." She moved towards the door with slight bounces in her steps.

"See you later."

"I would like that." She opened the door, walked through it, then closed the door. I laid back on the bed. I looked around the room then grabbed a book from my bag to read without checking the title.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For next chapter, I'm thinking that Tiamat comes back.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. My computer was once again acting up, but by now I'm sure you are tired of hearing that. It is what happened though.

It had been a few weeks, give or take a couple of days, since I had arrived in the Swamplands and I had grown quite fond of Swift Song and Green Beryl's odd family. Though I can't say that I remember half of their names. Right now, I was watching a few of the young dragons work on their penmanship by writing from a dictionary. "Blue Topaz, stay within the lines." Green Beryl had stuck her head out from the kitchen where she was currently working on supper. "No one will want a dragon with sloppy handwriting to make their books for them."

"Yes, Grandmother." Blue Topaz was having trouble holding the stylus correctly and she kept dropping it. A few ink splatters decorated the page from past lines. Beside her, Yellow Garnet was nudging at her to show her the proper form, but that ended up messing her up more.

"Yellow Garnet, eyes on your paper. Your Gs are sloppy."

Yellow Garnet hung her head for a moment. "Sorry." She started to work over the Gs that she had already written down though that mostly ended up in wasted paper. Part of me cried out at it since paper was hard to come by in the old world, but I comforted myself with the knowledge that paper was much more common here. Green Beryl had happily talked me through the new spells that were used to recycle worn paper in new ready to used paper. I personally considered the concession slightly boring, but it made her happy to talk about so I allowed her to.

A harsh ping came from the kitchen. "Oh, bread's done." Green Beryl turned and walked back into the kitchen. The dragons relaxed slightly though they didn't stop working. "Keep working."

"Yes, Grandmother," all of them said this in almost unison. The only sound after that was the scribbling on paper and the rustle of paper being moved about. Slowly, I leaned myself forward until I felt my back pop in several places then placed my head on my claws. A feeling of peace was settling over me and I was just about to drift off to sleep when the door slammed open. I shot up and stared as Green Tiger's Eye shot into the room followed by a chaos born male.

Green Beryl shot into the room with a baking pan clasped in her muzzle. She looked around then settled down when she saw no one was hurt. "What were you thinking? Running around like a pack of wild dogs." Her feathers were fluffing up. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

The chaos boy turned to me. "There has been a bit of trouble, ma'am." His wings were moving slowly. "Apparently, the champions need to see you."

"You saw the champions," Green Beryl said as she walked over to Green Tiger's Eye. "And you are positively filthy. What were you thinking? You can't represent the family like this." She started to groom his feathers quickly though I truly couldn't see any reason to do so. His feathers were all in place and though they were slightly dirty, he was still a kit and kits get dirty.

"Grandma, this is important." She butted him with her wing as she continued to work on his feathers. "We really need to get going."

She lifted her muzzle up. "Not looking like this. Just hold still." He huffed. All of the kits were looking at each other then went back to their school work quickly. The chaos boy was staring towards me and shifted around like he was feeling uncomfortable.

"Are you feeling alright?" I kept looking at the Chaos boy. He looked at me then and fluttered his wings quickly behind him.

"No, not really." He turned back to Green Tiger's Eye. He was squirming around now.

"Oh, that's terrible." I twitched my wings slowly. I had managed to sneak away to change forms a couple of times so the itch wasn't that terrible, but I would have to sneak away to do it soon enough. The itch was starting up again.

"Yep." He nodded quickly. Green Beryl stopped messing with Green Tiger's Eye's feathers then stepped back quickly. "Can we go, please. This is a bit time sensitive."

Green Tiger's Eye turned towards him and growled shortly. "I was trying."

"Greenie, don't take that tone with people. It's rude." She pushed him forward. "Now, Tiamat, would you go with them to see what the matter is while I finish up supper? Oh, and would you take Silent Song with you? She would be over the moon to see the champions, you know? She is quite a fan of them. The old ones, at least. Ask Swift Song which field she is in today. I didn't really think to." She moved towards the kitchen while her eyes scanned over the remaining hatchlings. "Where is Silver Selenium?" She leaned backwards onto her back legs to look around. "Where are you at?"

A small, silver scaled hatchling walked out with a bread pan clasped in her muzzle. She handed it to Green Beryl who took it then set it on her back. "The bread was burning."

"Ah. Good save. Now get back to work. You are only on the Ds. You need to be at least to the Gs before we start breakfast. Though your penwork is excellent."

"Thank you, Grandmother."

I turned to the boys, the chaos born was looking around with wide eyes though they seemed to linger on me longer then most of the others while Greenie was looking at the other boy with a smile.   
I had to suppress a chuckle. "Well, let's be going now." I moved towards the door without waiting for them to follow. I knew where Swift Song was in the fields today as she had informed me before she left, so I would be able to find her quickly. I heard the skittering of claws after me. I smiled as I reached the door and pushed it open. A few of the younger griffin cubs scattered off of the porch to avoid the door. I smiled at them apologetically. The oldest one, a grey female with white speckles, glared at me as I passed before an orange male pulled her tail so she turned to deal with him. He ran off into the bushes and she followed after him quickly. I stopped at the end of the porch though I made sure to leave enough room for the boys to get through. My wings were fluttering as I turned to the boys. "So are we going to fly or are we going to walk."

Greenie turned to the Chaos male who stared back. A silent conversation passed between them before Greenie turned back to me. His forked tongue flicked out at me. It was strange for any dragon species to have such a thing, but it seemed impolite to ask why he had one. My personal theory was the chaos magic causing changes to species a little quicker than what order magic would usually allow. "We should probably fly there. It is faster."

"It is." I flared out my wings. Their span was apparently impressive as Swift Song had mentioned that fact to me. "Now, we should head over to the East Field to see Swift Song." Greenie nodded and started to rush forward to help him gain speed to get airborne. I flared out my wings, gave them a few good hard flaps, and caught a strong enough updraft to reach a flying height. Underneath me was the chaos boy, his leathery wing stretched wide to catch at breezes while Green Tiger's Eye was high above me now as he had ridden the updraft to its peak. Below all of us were trees, I could just see a head of us, a break in the tree line that could be either a field or a meadow. I kept my eyes downward as I turned slightly so that I would fly over the meadow directly instead of skirting the edge of it as the other path would have taken us.

Though it turns out that it was neither a meadow or a field, but a house. Several patches of roof were gone while several parts of the walls were sagging. Here and there were vines and bits of greenery attached to it. "That's the manor. We aren't allowed to go there. You know, on account of Miss Luna's ghost. Grandmother would have a fit if she knew we had even come this close to it."

I stopped and hovered lightly as I looked at it. Something seemed to be curling around the house though the magic didn't feel like anything I had felt before. "What do you mean Miss Luna's ghost?"

Green Tiger's Eye moved lightly across the breeze until he was about level with me while the other boy swiftly flew up to meet us both. Terror was pooling off of him in dark waves. The two shared a look that lasted several long moments before they broke apart. Greenie was the first to speak. "I don't know when exactly when we pulled up from that homestead for ours now, but it was before Grandmother was hatched. She was born in our house as she is quick to remind us. Mama was born in the house. I was born in that house." The other boy cleared his throat loudly which caused Greenie to turn to him. They shared a look before Greenie turned back to me with an embarrassed expression. "Right, I am getting sidetracked. But Great Grandmother was born down there. In that house. We hear bad stories about that place. None of them are the same though so we don't know which are right. I have heard that the house is a ghost. Others say that only certain rooms are ghosts. Others that several spirits dance naked outside. Though that one was from Faded Light and he is really-" He looked towards the other male.

"Horn-"

"Pix!"

"Monal."

"Oh."

"What did you think I was about to say?" Pix had his paws on his hips though it must have been awkward with the way he was flying. Though I wasn't one to judge others, especially with all of the skeletons in my closet and freak things I have gotten up to.

Greenie looked away. "Nothing."

"Uh-huh." Pix turned to me then. "There are many stories, but we aren't supposed to go near it."

"Because of the ghost?" Both of them nodded. I forced myself back into normal vision as I stared at them now and tried to place the thoughts of that house out of my mind for now. There would be time enough to explore it later. "Well, something tells me that the field isn't this way." Greenie shook his head sharply. "Ah. We will need to find it then."

Greenie smiled. "It's that way." He pointed sharply to his left. "We have to pass it anyway to get to Pixel's house. Plus, we should tell Grammy too. She gets mad when I don't tell her when I leave. Even if I already told Grandmother."

"And we have to get your cousin."

Greenie twisted about for a minute before he looked back towards Pixel. "Which one?" He twitched his wings quickly enough that it didn't interrupt his flying. "Oh, right. I remember now."

"Do you? Do you really?" Pixel had a slight teasing lift to his voice that made me smile. "Do ya?"

"Yes." Greenie hissed sharply at him then dived down towards the ground. He managed to pull out of it before he reached the ground then flapped up to meet us with a confused look.

"What's the matter?"

He turned towards me. "I thought I saw something down there, but I couldn't see it when I got closer."

Pixel looked down. I blinked into mage sight then stared down at the now dark purple landscape below us. A few spots were dotted with slight bits of red or green with a very rare splash of yellow. Overall though the magic was calm. "I don't see anything down there?"

"I just said that they disappeared when I went down there." Greenie was making his mad face which involved him puffing out his cheeks and glaring at you. I found it to be adorable.

I snorfled in through my nose. Both of them turned towards me. "Now, what did they look like? I have seen a lot in my years."

Greenie scrunched up his nose. "It was like a colorful burr. From what I saw they kind of resembled Mers though they had kanjish shapes. Wings, not dragon in shape or feathered. At least, I don't think so. They were really tiny." I nodded slowly as he spoke. He took a deep breath in and looked at me. "Do you know what they are?"

I thought it over. They could have been a lot of things. Spirit lights, fairies, astral lights, or any other weird. "Many things can take that shape. Even a few of the more gifted illusion mages can make themselves appear that small." Shapeshifters, too, though they are a lot rarer here than we were in the Emerald Plains. I shook my head sharply as I tried to repress the memories that name brought back up. My efforts were mostly successful. The few that managed to slip through were of a bittersweet nature that was easy enough to ignore.

"Aren't astral lights and spirits lights the exact same thing?" I turned to Pixel who was currently staring straight down at the ground. "They sound like they should be."

Swift Song appeared in front of us. "Grammie?"

I stared at her for a minute. "Hello, Swift Song. What are you doing up here?"

She flared her feathers out and glared at me sharply. "I could ask you the exact same question. And what is this talk of the fay I was just hearing about? We don't need any of that trouble with the harvest coming in." She turned to me then. "Apples, right now. They got hit during the last chaos storm, so we need to get them now before they eat the rest of the tree."

I blinked as I couldn't help but think of a giant apple with pointy teeth ripping another screaming apple from a branch then eating it. No one ever said that I was completely sane. "Well," I glanced towards the cubs. "They came back to the house all worked up about me having to come with them to Pixel's house. Apparently the champions have arrived and need my help with something. Green Beryl wanted us to take Silent Song with us if you weren't needing her. She is apparently all about the champions right now."

Swift Song blinked then looked behind her before she turned back to us. "She isn't really doing much right now. She is scared of the apples, so she is getting Golden Delight to do her work. Can't say I truly approve, but Goldie needs to learn how to say no."

I nodded. "Sol had the exact same problem. Takes too much after his father in that regard." I stopped and thought it over with a small smile. "He takes after him in most ways actually. If he hadn't come plopping out of my back side, you wouldn't exactly know he was mine."

Silent Song nodded while the boys looked at me with matching looks of disgust. "The same was true with Shaded Glimmer. Took after Green Beryl too much for my comfort. People started talking, back then we were together you know, so they talked until the sun rose. I had to bust a couple of people up because they wouldn't stop. Something like that stays with a cub. For life." Her wings were snapping as they hovered and her gaze had taken on an edge that led me to believe that she was mad at that still.

I smiled as memories started to stir inside my head. "My first mate had that happen to her." I could see her grey eyes, exactly the color of her storms, though I couldn't remember what exactly her name was.

Silent Song turned her gaze to me and her eyes softened. "It is a terrible thing to happen to a cub." She turned to the boys who were currently resting a bit below her in a gnarly old tree. "Why don't you two go find Silent Song? She is in the east slice with Goldie, Night, and Light." The boys turned to look at each other then they took flight.

"Why do some of your cubs have one name and others don't?" The question was out before I could even think of how rude it could be.

"All of them have two names. It's just easier to scream one name then two, so I gave them all nicknames when they were still in their scraps." She looked down at the tree. "We planted that tree when I was young. We were just mated." Her wings shifted and she dipped into a slow dive. I followed after her as it was rude to leave a conversation unfinished. "He spent so long trying to find it. It had some meaning or the other that he adored. He was like that."

"He sounds like a good one."

"Yes, he was. The best. We were a perfect match though you wouldn't have known it some days. I had quite the temper back then." I snorted slightly. "I have mellowed out a bit in my golden years."

"Fin and I never really fought with each other." We never really had any reason too. "The chance wasn't there too often anyway." He and I would meet up when either of us needed their itch scratched. Occasionally, we spoke to each other if we ran into each other. I was fond of him even though our love wasn't really anything to write ballads over. Something told me that people had though.

Silent Song nodded. "Flighty, was he?"

I snorted. "No, not really. He was dedicated, very much so, to his work. Sometimes, he made me feel like I was his mistress while his true mate was his work." She smiled at me slightly. "I will admit that some of the fault lies with me for the way we lived, but it was a good life." Swift Song nodded slowly.

"So why did you end up out here?"

I blinked as I thought over a decent sounding half truth. "Well," I drew the word out to give myself a bit more time. "We had a fight," that part was true though it wasn't with each other, "my sister got involved and it turned into a whole thing." That was also true. A fight of epic proportions. "I don't even remember what we were fighting about." Not at all true. That whole day was branded into my memory. "I decided that I needed space from both of them, so I flew away." I gave a sharp flap of my wings that sounded like a thunderclap. I was slightly proud of the fact that she stared at my wings for a moment. I had always admired a good pair of wings myself. "And so I ended up here after I flew through a purple whirl then took a nose dive to the rock."

She stared at me with confusion clear on her face. "Purple whirl? We get plenty of purple swirls around these parts though I ain't never heard of anyone going through them to other places. Ya should go speak to Green Beryl if you want to hear about the who-blah of all it."

I blinked at her slightly and swung my tail sharply. "I might have to do that."

She smiled at me then snorted. "You know, I just sounded like one of those people in the flip-books that Nook-Nook loves."

"Which one is Nook-Nook again?" I went over each cub that I remembered though I couldn't exactly place the name to a face.

"The black one," she lifted up her paw to about her chest,"short little thang comes up to about here on me. Always has their beak buried in the books, poofy feathers on their head. Wears really big glasses that cover most of their eyes." She shook her head. "Shade's baby. She didn't tell me who she mated with, but they must have been of good breeding since I never had any trouble with Nook-Nook. Aside from the few times, I tried to put them in a dress when they was a cub. I understand now, but I had to bop them several times when they were younger for scratching me."

I smiled. "That was quite the fight I had with Finny when we had ours. He is-" I thought over the politest way to say that he was a bit of a pacifist, it wasn't truly acceptable then or now. "He avoids conflict with our cubs."

She nodded. "Most males do. They spend too much time trying to be their friends. My mate did the exact same thing." Her tail was twitching sharply behind her. I smiled. "So you had a fight with your mate?" I nodded. "You don't seem too broken up over it?"

I shrugged. "I have never been that emotional."

She nodded. "Neither have I. The cubs don't complain too much." She turned her head. "Speaking of cubs." Pixel was flying in front with Greenie held in his arms behind him was Silent Song, her wings were too small for her size and that made flying at all hard on her, and Golden Harvest flying behind her. Golden Harvest had a large farmer's hat on her head that kept slipping down over her eyes and a red neck tie with white spots on it.

"Hello, Gram-Gram." Golden Harvest turned to me. "Hello, Miss Tiamat." She turned back to Swift Song. "I have completed my work, so can I go with them to see the champions?" Her eyes were hopeful.

Swift Song was silent for a moment then she nodded. "Hard work deserves a reward." She turned to look at Silent Song who coughed at her stare. "You may go this time, but next time you need to do your own work."

"Sorry, Momo." Silent Song looked down at the tree.

"Do better next time." She turned to me. "You should be heading out soon. We need to get through the other half of the orchard by sunrise." She flapped her wings. "Where are you going to meet the champions? I don't believe I remember that fact."

Green rubbed his head against Pixel's chest. "We are going to Mister Blue's house. Apparently one of them might be his kid."

Pixel rolled his eyes. "That was just a rumor started by Miss Moss Stone because we accidentally hit her gardenia pots during a race."

"You did what?" Both of them turned slowly to Swift Song who was staring at them balefully. "Please tell me I didn't hear what I just heard."

"We are sorry, Grammy."

She huffed. "You better be glad that I am still letting you go." Her eyes moved over the boys harshly. "But when you get back you are making it right with her. Am I understood?" Both of them nodded. "Good." She turned to me with a smile then. "We have to continue our talk later, Tia."

I nodded and smiled back. "Yes, we shall." I did enjoy our talks. Something about it was refreshing though I couldn't understand why. Just talking was actually better than the more romantic things I did with Fenris. I pushed my thoughts away from this and turned to the boys. Kids. There were girls here now, too. "Come on, kids." I shifted my wings. "Pixel lead the way to where ever we are going."

"My house." 

All of them said goodbye to Swift Song who flew with us to the field. Which as it turns out is just another section of the forest with different types of trees. The different sections were marked clearly with different colors. The first was marked with red, the next was marked with yellow, and the last section we flew over was marked with pink. In fact most of the trees in there had pink leaves. Some of them had a mixture of dark green mixed in with the pink.

Pixel was actually good at navigating this area. Not surprising when I thought about it, but I was still slightly surprised. The flight was short and before I could even start to let my mind wonder we were landing in front of a tree. A nice sized tree that looked like some sort of lodging. The things people here used their magic for will never cease to surprise and amaze me. Pixel looked towards me with a smile. "Nature scientists are constantly on the lookout of new advances in magic studies." Greenie tapped him with a wing. "Right. Not everyone is as into nature magic as I am." He smiled sheepishly.

"It is quite alright."

One of the girls bounced forward. Her large glasses kept falling down her beak. "Come on." She reached the door. "We need to go in now." She continued to push on the door before she huffed and sat back down. "It won't budge."

"I think you need to use the knob rather than try to brute force it down." I laughed lightly and moved my tail around slowly. The girl in front of the door turned and glared at me before she turned back to the door.

"She got you there, Sing Song," The hatted cub laughed while the door girl turned to stick her tongue out at her.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, Pie Face Goldie." Names clicked then as I made sure to keep myself in the present. Golden Harvest and Silent Song. I kept all of my focus on remembering those names that I started when the door suddenly opened to reveal a siren male in the middle of his molt. It always struck me as something awful that they have to go through. That is why I preferred scales over feathers. Not that I remained in any form long enough for it to make any difference.

"Are you going to stay out here all day or are you going to come in? We have soup and jam." I wrinkled my nose as I thought about the thought of red jam, the way it was supposed to be, in a bowl of brown soup. Completely disgusting.

I followed after the young'uns into the small house. I made myself slightly smaller so that we would all fit. Thankfully, I was so good at it that I managed to do so in a way that made sure I wasn't caught. Sitting at the table were two chaos born girls that were currently in a card game. The younger girl seemed to be winning from the large amount of cards in her hand. Off to the side of the room was two of the champions that I honestly couldn't remember the name of right now. Both were brunettes though there was a blue furred female who kept glancing around at the shadows on the walls. I tried digging out their names, but they were buried in old memories and new ones alike.

The older of the brunettes turned to me. "Hello, Tiamat." She placed a special effort on my name that I didn't understand, but allowed to remain. "It is a pleasure to see you again."

The kids looked at me then with wide eyes. Greenie looked shocked while Silent Song was looking at me with hero worship in her eyes. Golden Harvest was staring at me with suspicion while Pixel was looking towards the girls who looked like they were his sisters. "Yes, it is." I looked back towards the champions. "I helped them out on a case a bit ago. Their first if I do believe it is true." The kids nodded. Pixel and Greenie moved over to the table with the girls. The boys shared a seat together with Greenie on Pixel's shoulder. Golden Harvest followed Silent Song over to the champions. I took a breath in and turned to the older male. "So why was I called here? If this is some kind of hook up situation then we will need to send the kits off somewhere."

The siren blinked and snorted. "No." He shook his head. "Just no and you know about as much as I do. I came back from hunting to see them here. You should ask the fledglings."

I nodded at him then moved over the champions while avoiding stepping on either Golden Harvest or Silent Song. The blue one stared at me with a fear filled expression. "Now I am here and I have been told that you have something to tell me?" I turned to the two cubs underfoot. "Why don't you go and see if you can beat your brother at whatever that card game is?" Golden Harvest nodded. Silent Song seemed like she was about to protest, but she was dragged off to the table before she could.

The champions looked at each other for a minute before the blue one spoke up. "The-the."

The darker brown one with the blank expression cut her off when it became clear even to me that she wasn't going to tell us what was happening. "The Night Bringer has returned and requested that you go and-" She turned to the other dark female-"speak with her." The other female nodded. "She had one of her minions kidnap Sofia, Aleksandr, and Caterina." The blue girl nodded. "They are fine-ish, as you can see." 

I blinked as my mind shattered into the past suddenly. The walls around us suddenly melted into nothing that spanned the area around us. Suddenly points of light clustered around each of us before shooting off. "Sorry about this. I'm still learning how this works." My captivity had caused a sort of mutation in some of my powers that I hadn't even figured out how or why. It was the nature of my magic to change though so it wasn't really a surprise. A bit of an annoyance, but nothing I couldn't handle myself. "A bit of chaos magic."

One of the chaos girls snorted though it was behind me so I couldn't see which one. "Yep, this is boneiffed fried chaos magic all right." A small sort of gasping sound came from behind me. I whipped around, almost running into Golden Harvest who was currently crouched in front of my front section of paws. My mind didn't want to say what word it actually was to describe it, so I settled on those after a very brief thinking about it. The younger chaos girl appeared to be laughing though I couldn't rule out the possibility that she was actually choking on something. "Easy, Pixie." The other chaos born girl walked over to Pixie and started to rub on her back. "You don't want to choke on your own spit again."

Pixie glared at her and grabbed for something then stopped. She looked around with a semi-panicked expression before one of the champions handed her a sheet of rock. She smiled at them then started to scribble on the rock. 

I blinked then looked away. My magic had sent us here for a reason, most likely for entertainment, so I had to find the reason to leave. Each of the balls of light had stopped quite a while away from us. I briefly considered trying to catch one of them for interrogation, but set it aside as ridiculous. Balls of light don't talk. Well these balls of light couldn't talk. I know nothing is impossible. It hadn't taken my long to figure that out. Especially after the third mating proposal involving fire. Lots and lots of fire. First one that involved kits though thankfully they didn't get hurt that time. My favorite had to be the one where they farted the wedding march then offered to take me on a tour of their swamp. I turned them down, but took them up on the tour. I ate my fill of frogs there. It actually caused a bit of a problem so I had to move some frogs around that ended up to actually be toads. Fin laughed himself silly over it when I told him.

Suddenly a ball of light whooshed right at me. It slammed into my nose, leaving an impression of warmth before the darkness fell away into a dark patch of swamp. There was a distant rumble of thunder. In front of us was a young pale lioness next to a griffin who was currently holding onto a large purple frog with their front paws. "Now, this is an Ingenious Purple Spitweed."

"You are making that up."

The griffin smiled. "Nuh, uh. I ain't making it up. That's what it's called."

I watched as the lioness snapped up the frog from their hands. "Well whatever it is called. It sure is tasty." A name suddenly came to me, Pal. They were a good friend, but they wanted more than I did and that caused our friendship to sour. The world shifted again.

"This reminds me of the time I ate some weird mushrooms." I turned towards Greenie. He blushed deeply. Strangely enough, the color was actually a muddy shade of yellow. "I was hungry and I was still young enough not to know that it wasn't the best idea."

"You ate poo mushrooms?" Pixel nearly doubled over with laughter. Mushrooms can grow on poop? Why doesn't that surprise me? Because I am old. 

The older chaos girl was rolling her eyes with an affectionate expression. "Why are boys like this?"

"That is a question for the ages," I said. The girl turned to look at me.

"What is happening to us anyway?"

I shrugged. "As far as I can figure we are going through my memories. Probably a reaction to my magic, but I am not quite certain about that being why."

The girl nodded. "So what do we need to do to get out of here?"

I blinked. "No idea. Though we probably shouldn't try to break anything in here. This is probably the inside of my mind. I don't want it to be destroyed."

"A mind is a terrible thing to waste," The lighter brunette said. The other one turned to her and shook her head. "What? That was a good pun."

"No, it wasn't."

She crossed her arms with a huff. "Fine. I shall try to actually make good enough puns for you, Felicity."

Felicity hissed at her sharply. "Don't call me that. It's a dumb name."

"Well, it is yours. What does that say about you?"

"That a mistake was made somewhere along the way." That reminded me of the time that Reyna tried to get with Swiftchaser while she was still with Darkmane. Suddenly the world changed again around us. "Not again." Yep, again we go. I saw the blue girl pull something out of her dress. Huh, a dress that actually had space to hold things. Maybe things had actually gotten a bit better since I was away.

~Caterina~

"And now, I, Fernando the Gay Raccoon, with die dramatically." I looked as the large raccoon man suddenly grasped his chest, spun around, and landed on the ground with a loud thump. "Off-screen of course. Wouldn't want to make the Karen moms mad." The screen faded to black. The music changed to a perky pop song as a man sitting next to his wife on a table started spouting praises for Viagra.

"Are they allowed to actually show these commercials during lunch?" I turned to Lyra. She had ear buds in. She glanced at me then took them out of her ears.

"What?"

I gestured to the T.V. "Are they actually allowed to show this during lunch?"

She turned towards it and her nose scrunched up in her cute way. "Miss Poodle's doggy day care service?"

"Huh?" I turned back to it then. Obviously fake dogs were running around pulling baby's off of stuff. "No, not that. The other one for Viagra."

She nodded. "Oh. Well, it is late night T.V. Not much is actually on." She shrugged. "Downside to being nocturnal." She blinked then turned back to me. Her hair was coming undone from her bun. "What are we watching anyway?" I looked at her as I thought about how lucky I was that she actually liked me. I mean I made her eat actually mud pies when we were younger. There is a point where you just don't go and I have crossed it several times. "Cat?" I blinked as she started to call my name.

"Yes?"

She huffed at me playfully. "What's the name of the show we are watching?"

"Oh," I grabbed the remote and messed around with it until I opened up the menu,"Animal Tales: A story of epic tragedy. Apparently this is actually a series."

Lyra nodded. "That doesn't surprise me. Dumb things get made into series all the time. Remember when we watched the unicorn show?"

"My little pony?"

She shook her head. "No, the other one. The adult one with the kidney stealing mountain."

I thought it over for a moment before I finally remembered the name. "Charlie the Unicorn." She nodded. "I loved that show. Completely dumb though."

"Yeah. It is nice to just watch a show though." I nodded. There had plenty of fights about stupid shows that we both loved. "With mindless violence and no morals."

"There's too much of that in real life." I smiled at her. "Though most of the mindless violence in our life isn't really our fault."

"Oh, don't you get started on the predestined thing. It only makes both of us mad at each other." She rolled her eyes. "Nona does enough of that for all of us."

"I like Norma Jean." There was really no telling her that I actually was talking about having homicidal gods trying to kill us for generations old grudges.

"You better," Lyra bared her teeth at me," She is going to be your pridemate one day."

I snorted and leaned in closer to her. "No, I won't. You have to marry into my pride, remember? Since the-" I waved my paw as I tried to remember the correct name for a moment-" whole King Novak and King Gerald thing, royals can't marry out of the family."

Lyra smiled. "Oh, really? Did the whole Zonya Homophila crisis tell them something about incest." I blinked at her slowly then laughed.   
"It's hemophilia." I turned to Aleksandr as he walked through the room. "The other one was either gay love, like the kink kind, or the human love. I didn't really pay that much attention during that day."

"You don't pay attention most days."

Aleksandr nodded. "That's true." He looked around. "Have you seen Sofia?"

"She went with Fay and Delta to tell Tiamat." I shrugged. "Though she's been gone for a little bit. Why?"

"No reason." He shrugged and walked into the kitchen. "I'm getting a snack. Do you want one?"

I leaned over and put my arm around Lyra then smiled at her. She looked confused for a minute before she rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Nah, I already got one."

"You're terrible."

"But you love me anyway."

"No, she loves because you're terrible.Believe me, I read her diary," Aleksandr said as he walked out of the kitchen with a pack of Oreos, two sodas in an old fashioned bottle, and a pack of muffins. He walked over to us and set the muffins on the table and one of the sodas.

"You have a diary?" I turned back to Lyra who was glaring at either the Oreos or Aleksandr. I wouldn't put it past her to be doing both.

"No." She took her eyes off of what she was glaring at to look at me. "At least not one that he'll be able to find."

"It's in the cookie stash in her bra and sock drawer." I turned to look at Aleksandr. I was only mildly surprised that he knew about it still since I had blamed him for me stealing the cookies for years. Though now, I had the privilege of just asking her for cookies. That's what dating gets you. The cookie rights. Huh, I wonder what marriage will get me? If I am really good at it then I might get chocolate rights.

"Why are you going in my bra drawer?" Lyra brought me out of my thoughts as she usually does. What a great girlfriend.

"Looking for cookies. It's pretty obvious, sis."

"Stop going- Wait did you just call me sis?"

"That's what's important right now?" I looked between them.

"Yes," they said it at the exact same time. Sometimes I wonder if they practice when I'm not around. Probably not, but it is a funny thought.

"You would understand if you have siblings." I smiled at Lyra. "Oh no. What did I say? That smile is never good news."

"Ah, can't a girl just smile."

"No. Not like that."

"Noted." I smiled again in the exact same way. Lyra glared at me. A bing sounded from somewhere in the room. All of us put our hands in our pockets and pulled out our phones. I checked my phone then went through my notifications, but nothing too serious was on there. I looked first towards Lyra who looked happy staring at her phone screen then towards Aleksandr who looked panicked at his screen. "It wasn't me. Most of my things were from tumblr and one from Instagram, but that was nothing serious."

"Mike's is having a sale tomorrow. Grampy is going to take me. I need to use my gift card before it expires." I nodded. Lyra loved going to Uncle Micheal's store for her gear though she stopped taking me after the sixth time I attempted to haggle the prices down a bit. The mafia accent probably didn't help matters. It was really bad too.

"Sofia just texted me that the mission has gone belly up." Without meaning to the image of a dead fish in a tank flashed through my mind.

"What does that mean?" I turned towards Lyra then. "Did she leave you for a siren?"

Aleksandr looked up from his phone and glared at her. "No."

"She left you for a mer?"

"No."

"Oh, what does it mean? Delta got with the mer?" Kalima walked in the room from her room, a book in her hand. There were words written down the spine in gold that I couldn't tell what they said though.

Kalima looked towards us then. "No, Delts has a wing fetish." She went back to her book and moved towards the kitchen.

"Well, that is something I didn't want to know. Ever." Aleksandr looked back to his phone. "She texted me back. Apparently, something happened and now they are in Tiamat's head." He scrolled down. "Not like in the Matrix."

"Wow, she knows you really well." Lyra looked down. "I need soda. Thinking soda. Wait, which soda is thinking soda?" Lyra stood up and walked off towards the kitchen muttering. There were rummaging noises for a minute. "It is coke. I hate coke, so I'm getting Fanta and hoping that is a good substitute."

"What are we supposed to do about the Tiamat situation?" Aleksandr's breathes were coming in short pants now. "If The Night Bringer doesn't meet with Tiamat then she will kill us all. All of us."

"Stop worrying so much. We can cross any bridge when we get to it." That was my personal motto. It helped me get through a lot. "Now, who do we know that knows things about magic?"

Aleksandr blinked. "Uh, oh! Finris does."

I nodded. "Yes, I assume he does." I stood up. "Where is he? Do you know?" My tail flicked as I looked around at the doors around us as I tried to remember where he had disappeared to. Suddenly a shimmer appeared around the door beside the T.V that we had looted from poor dead Charlotte's place. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's that one."

I walked towards the door quickly then opened it wide. The inside of the room looked like a closet. Along the walls were golden honeycomb shaped cubby holes and in each of them was a flower, herb, or glowing thingamabob. There was a thick beige carpet on the floor and a swinging light holding on to the ceiling with wire, spit, and unheard prayers.

The shimmer appeared again around a piece of the wall. I walked forward slowly. Magic was unpredictable and I wasn't looking to trigger any booby traps around here. I reached my hand out. It hit a curtain and I grabbed it. I pulled it out.

We walked into a large room made of stones, scorch marks dotted some of the walls. Tables were placed here and there with science looking beakers and other things. Along the back wall was a small pile of blankets and pillows. A few bookcases filled with brown books built into the walls.. None of them had titles that I could see. I looked around the room. A bright flash appeared in the center of the room and Finris appeared with Vanessa beside him. They were standing with their backs to us. Vanessa's ear flicked towards us then she turned to us.

"Well, hello. I haven't seen you all since-"She stopped and seemed to be thinking-"a month ago?" She shrugged. "Well, I'm taking a bit of a breather right now. Hit a wall pretty hard. Literally. The talisman apparently has a locking mechanism." She huffed. "I still haven't found my notes which would make everything so much easier. I knew that I should write down where I put it, but it seemed kind of stupid to do so when it was so obvious at the time. Now, though I really wish I had." She breathed in deeply then she looked at me with sudden interest. "What are you doing back here? Grandpa doesn't usually let people back here, for really good reasons, things can explode very easily." She glanced towards Fin then. 

Fin moved forward stiffly. "Aleksandr, you look like you got quite the fright. Are you alright?" I turned to look back at Aleksandr. He was looking down at his phone. "Does it have anything to do with Reyna's challenge? Freya was out of sorts about it, quite right for that situation."

"You knew it was going to happen?"

Fin shook his head. "No, Freya only saw it after it had already happened. She has been working herself into exhaustion and that is affecting her ability to use her magic. Not much that she can actually do about it now. People keep dying and increasing the backlog. Erika is busy bringing summer right now to do anything. Sol is deep in some experiment and Bastet is looking after their cubs. Pyrrah and Bridget left for a vacation before the whole thing hit and we can't reach them. Believe me, all of us tried."

"Ireland is a large place."

"I thought it was Scotland they went to?" Fin turned to Vanessa.

She shrugged. "It was one or the other. Wherever there is alcohol and warm bodies."

"That describes a lot of places," I said.

Vanessa nodded. "Bri was never one to be tied down to any place in particular." She snorted. "Aside from her forge, but she moves that every decade or so."

Fin looked around the room again. "Why did you come back here?"

I looked towards Lyra. She had been quiet for too long now. It wasn't like her. She looked towards me. "Sofia, Fay, and Delta were sucked into Tiamat's mind."

"Huh." That was all he said as he stared at us unblinkingly.

"Along with a few others that we don't know the name of," I said then. Vanessa was nodding her head slowly. "We aren't really sure of the reason."

"Eh, it happens. Magic tends to change, especially chaos magic." Vanessa was tapping her fingers against her hip. "As far as I can figure is that they will get out when she wants them to get out."

"So that is your expert magical opinion?"

"Yep. Do you guys want some tea? Because I would kill for some right now." She turned towards Finris. "Do you still have the nutty bread you had last time?" She walked towards us. I moved out of her way. "No worries, I'll find it if you have it."

"Vanessa doesn't mean any offense." I turned back to Fin then. He was staring out the door. "She doesn't understand that people need to be told things in sensitive ways." I nodded. "But she is right. Magic lasts as long as it wants to. No less or more than that."

"So there is no way to get Sofia out of Tiamat's head?"

Fin shook his head. "I never said that. There are usually counterspells to everything, but we would need to know how the spell was cast to counter it."

"Why?"

"Magic is fickle. Easily changeable when she wants to be. We can study her moods and learn how to plead that something happens, but she is the one who makes it actually happen."

"So basically you need to figure out what made her magic react like it did in order to find a way to convince it to change?" I turned to Aleksandr in surprise as I realized that was exactly what Finris had actually said. I turned back to Finris then as he seemed to be thinking over what he was going to say next.

"In layman's terms, yes." He looked like the words were making him eat a lemon, rind and all. "Now, where was it cast?"

"The swamplands."

"Snails."

"Snails," I said? Though I have to wonder if that was his way for cursing.

I heard footsteps and the clatter of potter from behind me. Vanessa walked into the room holding a tea set. "Apparently that is Grandpa's curses." She looked at me then leaned closer. "I think that they were a lot worse back in the old world, but I never actually found anything about them in any of the books I found." She leaned back then walked over to one of the tables to set down the tea sets. "Now what has got you all worked up?"

"Tiamat cast a spell in the Swamplands?" Vanessa nodded. Fenris just stared at her for a moment.

"Oh, was that it?"

"It wasn't enough?"

"Obviously not," Lyra said. I walked closer to her.

Finris huffed and muttered something under his breath. "Alright, as I am sure all of you are aware of, the swamplands are filled with chaos magic." He waited. None of us said anything. "Chaos magic is highly corrupting to order magic."

"No, it isn't, Grandpa." Vanessa sighed. "Magic strives for balance between all things. Imagine a scale, if you will, on either side is order and chaos. Usually the scales are balanced so that every action for each is a reaction for the other, but occasionally the balance is destroyed. From that you get places like the swamplands for chaos magic or places like," She tapped harshly on the table beside her. "The griffin kingdom where everything is controlled down to the weather. Usually places don't get that bad. Something has to happen to tip the scale. For the griffins, it was father being banished, they started to see every bit of chaos as evil things to be destroyed or controlled. No one is quite sure what happened to the Swamplands."

"Probably something to do with the Kitsune Fur trades."

"Kitsune Fur?" I looked around the room.

"It was the style for a time to get things made of kitsune fur. So that it would change into whatever you wanted it to be." Vanessa had stopped moving then. She turned to look at the wall. "I would love to tell you that this was an ancient grievance, but it happened right before we were banished."

"It was old. People have been hunting Kitsunes since before we settled here, but the fur trade turned it into a sport for them. The Icy Mountains started it then the Swamplands joined in the fun. They managed to hunt the Kitsunes until there were only two hundred left in Panthera. Many fled to the other kingdoms. The Griffin Empress used them to turn her court around. They were trained as assassins for each new queen. They are called the order of night."

"They used the name, but it was around long before that. It goes back to Leonist when Sekhmet trained young women to be her guards and spies. Most of them betrayed her during the last battle to help the refugees escape." Fin looked crossly at Vanessa. "Not that Grandpa needs to be reminded of that fact since he was there."

"That was the basis for the Solar and Lunar Guards in the Pantherian court right?" Lyra grabbed my hand then and squeezed it sharply. "I was never good at history."

"Yes, it was. Though it took a long time to get started. There were many battles about who should lead the group even after the Volcanic woman left. Most of the Order of Night went with them if I remember correctly."

Fin smiled. "They did though not all that stayed were loyal. I was cared for by a soldier who found me off the battlefield. She healed my wounds and hid me until I was well enough to leave. That was just before the barrier went up."

"My sixth birthday if I remember correctly. You came limping in covered in blood and mud. Mother told me a couple times." Fin nodded.

"Yes, she gave her life so that I could escape. Reyna almost got me, damaged my shoulder pretty badly with her claws."

"Talons."

"Whichever one applies."

"It's talons."

Fin huffed then growled lowly. "We can continue this discussion after we go to the swamplands." Vanessa nodded. "Go. Follow me." We followed after him to the door then out into the room then out into the meeting/game room. We paused by the door while Finris turned the knob using his mouth. The door opened slowly. What was on the other side would stick with me to my grave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, need to fear. Green Beryl and Swift Song will be returning though I can't say when.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait. More computer troubles.

Most of the furniture was completely destroyed and what was still standing was black and scorched. Even the walls carried the stain of blackened wood. Though there were patches of undisturbed wood on the floor though most were small enough to disappear completely into the darkness of the wood surrounding it. "What happened here?" The stupidity of what I just said hit me as I said it. My ears flipped back for a second before I pushed them back into their normal position. "So what can we do to get them back?" 

Caterina turned to look at me. No, behind me. it was back behind me. The door was too narrow for any of us to come inside while I was still there. I shifted until I could feel the door on my back. Fin walked inside the room followed closely by Aleksandr who kept on his heels. Caterina moved to stand next to me. Spending time with her had been- I searched through my head until I settled on a word- strange. She barely acted like I remembered her to and she kept saying things that I didn't understand. It made me feel awful. We had missed so much time together and I should spend more time with her, but every time we hung out there was just this feeling of what could have been hanging over it. I couldn't say anything without that feeling lashing at me. It got slightly better when we were in a group. The others would fill the silence with something and I wouldn't feel as bad.

"So how have you been?" I turned my head towards Caterina as my thoughts left me alone thankfully. "I haven't seen a lot of you since we got chosen."

Words I have been meaning to say rushed to my throat to be released finally, but I merely smiled back at her. "I've been good. Therapy has helped me a bit. How have you been?"

Her nose wrinkled and she looked at me with concern. "You've been going to therapy?"

The way she said it sent a wave down me. Cries of not normal and freak rang through my head as I tried to continue to smile. "Yeah. Every Thursday."

"Oh. I thought that was yours and Kieran's date night." She looked away then. You could cut the tension between us with a knife. "Me and Lyra usually go out on Saturdays since we have to go to school. Unless the fair is in town then we go there Wednesday since that is when couples get discounts on arm bands. Sofia and Aleksandr usually go Saturday, because Sofia likes to see the animals and Aleksandr needs all day on the rides." She scoffed. "He gets freaked out on the Ferris wheel."

"The screws could be loose, the door is open so you could fall out. All sorts of things can happen." Aleksandr turned to glare at them. Fin licked the floor. A shudder went through me as I thought about the amount of germs on that floor. When all of us got home, I would need a bath. No, shower. Water falling on me was better than a pool of water just sitting around me. Lurking, waiting to drag me under. I shuddered again. "You cold, Kalima?"

"Huh?" I blinked as I realized someone had said my name.

"You keep shivering. Are you cold?" He looked concerned. Shame started prickling along my spine for a moment before I pushed it down. No need for them to worry about me.

I shook my head. "No, I got a full coat." I smiled then until Aleksandr turned back around then I dropped it. No need to present a face to people when they weren't looking. I would have to do enough of that when I was Queen. A lot of the books I had read said that to me.

"So have you read any good books lately?"

I turned back to Caterina then. "Uh, yeah." I flicked my tail slowly. "The newest Queen Diana book came out yesterday. I haven't got that far in it."

"I haven't read any of them. Are they any good?"

I flicked my ear slowly. "Yes, they are." I took a deep breath in.

"What is it about? My internet isn't working out here." She gestured towards her pocket. "It does in Sanctuary though I have no idea why."

"Are the Queen Diana books also in your world?" Maybe we imported them out, but I was never too interested in my economic studies. I would have to find an adviser who was good at it for when I was queen.

Caterina nodded and twitched her ear twice. "Yep. Madame Aubrey's does a book reading every week and she read one of the books." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Last month's, I think. Don't quote me on that. Hershey had a vet visit that day so I couldn't go."

I nodded like I understood. "Oh, well, is he okay?" That was a good response. It left the option open for many things.

She nodded. "Yeah. Just a routine visit to make sure he was healthy. Aunt Serafina was busy with a council meeting so I got to miss Math to take him. Of course I made it back for English."

"We had to watch a movie. An old movie. I couldn't understand most of it."

Caterina looked like Aleksandr had slapped her straight across the face. "We were honored enough to get to see the first performance of Hamlet on the silver screen."

"Yeah, right."

"Idiot." Caterina hissed sharply at him. "Some things are wasted on you."

"Yep. Like all of those hours of watching PBS with you." He sighed. "Better than Barney though."

"Anything is better than Barney."

I looked between them for a moment before I decided to speak up. "I don't know what either of you are talking about."

"Shows we watched when we were younger."

Fin stood up and walked over to us. "I have an idea, but I need something." He looked between us for a second. "Let's see." He looked at Aleksandr. "Cold-Drake scales. You can find it under pine trees around here." He looked towards me then. "Ammeralis, moon flowers, and silver belles. Moon flowers grow in limestone caves. Ammeralis grows in the Icy Mountains region. Silver belles grow high up in mountains. Look for griffin nurseries. They like the way silver belles look." He turned to Caterina then. "And I need some of my spell books. Ask Vanessa where to find them." She was going to come with us, but she decided to stay to look after the sanctuary. That and she said that she needed to eat something.

"Okay." I looked around. Fin moved back to where he was. Something about this felt like a put down. A 'go away now kids' moment. I breathed in deeply. "Who wants to do what?"

Caterina blinked for a second. "Well, let's think. I can go get the book from Sanctuary then Lyra and I can go get the moon flowers."

Aleksandr snorted. "Yeah. Like you ain't just going to go off and snog her silly."

"Why are you talking like that?" Both of them turned to look at me then. I shrank back into the door slightly. "It's just not how you usually talk and I was curious."

"It seemed appropriate for what I was saying." He looked away towards Fin then. "Now, what do you want to do for the quest thing now?"

"Don't call it a quest. Quests take way too long. Remember when we went to the Eternal Fields Of Punishment? It lasted us a month that we ain't never going to get back."

"Well," Fin stood up and moved back to us. "Do you regret it?" His accent had changed then to something that I didn't recognize exactly what it was.

I looked around. "No. I don't." I don't think that I ever would. Too much good had happened from it. 

Something grew in the air around us before suddenly a bright flash of light then a soft pop sound. The black vanished from the walls though it remained on the furniture. A tall woman stood in the middle of it all now. "Tiamat," Aleksandr said with a mixture of disbelief and wonder in his voice. The woman turned to him. Something about her made her hard to look at. It dimmed until I was able to look at her without pain. 

I was definitely wrong about her age. She was barely older than I was. Without the painful feeling, I could admit that she was attractive if a little bit odd in appearance. Her fur was short, dark blue in color, and her outfit was even older fashioned than Kieran's had been when I met him. White pants that billowed about her legs like balloons, a short blue shirt open to show a dark red shirt underneath stained in several patches with dirt. and a small hat atop of her black curls and between her two goat like horns. She drew swords from her side.

She opened her mouth and a language that I had never heard before came out. Her hand gripped the edge of her sword harder.

Fin responded to her in the same language. She turned herself so that she could look at all of us without turning her back to us. I couldn't help noticing the muscles under her shirt as she moved. Her tail was almost dragon in appearance and ended in a tuft of fur that fanned out like a Siren's tail feathers. They continued talking for several minutes. She relaxed her guard enough to lower her blades though she didn't sheath them. I was a bit sad when she did so though not for any reason I understood. Probably because I liked looking at the craftsmanship on the metal. That's it. Caterina caught my eye. She smiled at me in a knowing way that I honestly didn't understand. What did she know and what did it have to do with me?

"Well, we got a bit of a problem here." Thankfully, Caterina turned to look at Fin then so I didn't have to question what I was supposed to know. It made me anxious in a way that had my fur crawling. "The Missus here, she doesn't want to tell me her name, well she came from the same place we all did."

"Their mom?" I laughed shortly. Shame pressed into me as I realized that one one else had laughed. In fact the girl looked deadly as she gripped her blades tighter. Fin said something to her and she lowered her weapons back down. "Sorry. Not funny, I get it."

"Not exactly the time." Fin glanced back towards the girl then back towards us. "Not even true. I was a magic birth transported into an egg."

"Really." Aleksandr said? Oh, of course not. That just doesn't happen. Does it? I looked at Fin sharply as I tried to think it over.

"No." He looked back towards the girl slowly. "But that isn't the point. Now, the little missus comes from the old world. Though she calls it the motherland which I will admit is a very nice way of referring to it." He sighed. "We need to go back to sanctuary." He said something to the girl who glared at him. Her hands inched downward. He said something else then that seemed to sit better with her as her hands moved away from her swords. He moved slowly away from us then towards a section of the wall. He made a short half jump and landed on a doorstep that swiftly appeared. "Oh. I am getting too old for this." He turned his head towards us. "Come along children." He turned and grabbed the door handle in his mouth. He twisted it and pulled the door open.

I smiled and walked towards the door carefully to avoid bumping into anyone. I waited for Fin to go inside before I did. I glanced around the opening room slowly. It was really quiet. A note taped to the wall caught my eye then. I walked over to it and carefully untapped it.

It read:

To   
(Grandmother take my brother and his grammar issues)whom it may concern,

Kieran and I have gone off to the Icy Mountains to get mints. Aside from that, I don't know exactly what we are going to do. Who does kn- I ain't rambling Kieran, you are rambling- Grandmother he is annoying- What was I talking about? Huh, oh, right, right. Better end this soon.

Love, Vanessa. Wait should I use my titles? Why would I do that? Everyone knows who I am. Well expect for babies. Why do people have babies? They are loud. I had a large canary who was very loud named Larry who I hated. Jessamine ended up taking him off of my hands. I should get gloves while I am there. I need a pair of gloves. Why do you call it a pair of gloves? It makes no sen- Oh, because there are two of them. Right. Kieran is saying I'm rambling again so I want to stab him with the pen, but he would duck. I don't like ducks since one bit me on the butt when I was a tiny kitten. Wait, what is- oh, I hate you. Bastard brother. I wonder what Fitzy is up to. He was nice. Great, Kieran is grab-  
P.S. This is Kieran. Vanessa wanted to write that we are also going to get ice cream. She wanted me to write the reason too, but I don't want to.  
I stared at it for a moment before I looked around. The girl was walking into the room followed closely by Lyra and Caterina. "Vanessa and Kieran went to the Icy Mountains."

"Why," Lyra said.

"What are the Icy Mountains?" I turned to look at the girl as she spoke. I couldn't help, but notice that she had a nice voice. Slightly husky and deep. "Why is she staring at me? Is she an idiot?"

Caterina shook her head. "Nah. Kalima is just shy."

"Oh, Augusta is shy, too." She nodded and looked around. "Will anyone answer my question?"

"Yeah, yeah. It's a place." I took a breath in deeply before I continued. "A clan."

She blinked. "A clan? They went to a clanhold?" Her fingers were tapping against the edge of her sword slowly. "One doesn't just go to clanholds. They tend to be well armed." I stepped closer. "Where am I?"

"The kingdom of Panthera." Part of me wanted to say something else, but I couldn't think of anything at all that needed to be said.

'We come in peace." I turned to look at Aleksandr as everyone else did the same. "And all of that nonsense." He was smiling at us though it dropped as the rest of us didn't laugh. "It's what they say in the movies."

"Movies?" The girl looked towards me and a warm feeling spread through my stomach. "What is the red boy talking about?"

"I-'' I glanced around the room. "I don't know. They say weird things every so often that no one else really understands." My tail was flicking. Then I noticed that her skin looked shiny like fish or mer scales. It was very pretty.

"It's like a moving book."

"Books?" Her voice was suddenly hopeful. "You have books?"

"Yes. A lot of them." She turned to me then. 

"Where are they?" She sounded hopeful. "May I see them?" Her tail was flicking from side to side.

"They are mostly in my room, but there is more back home."

She stared around the room. "This isn't your home?" Her posture tensed suddenly. "I mean no offense. I am merely curious." Her ear flicked up and her nostril slits moved with every breath she took.

"It's okay."

"Kalima never takes offense to anything." I turned to look at Caterina then as I wondered exactly what she meant by that. "At least not that I've seen."

The girl nodded. "That's good. Now, about those books?" Her eyes moved along the walls suddenly. "Can you show me?"

I moved slowly over to her. "Yeah. Follow me." She followed me into my room.

"Keep the door open, Kalima." I growled at him swiftly, but kept the door open anyway. There was a wisdom in it since we didn't have a chaperone and it wouldn't do to have rumors spread about me. Not that I was worried about anyone here spreading rumors, but I had been trained to always be on alert.

I turned to the girl then. She looked around the room nervously. "Where are the books?" I moved past her and towards where I had placed my books. It was an easy thing to get to them once I removed the clothes from on top of them. I set the stack on my bed and the girl walked forward slowly. Her feet clopping against the floor almost like the sound horses make. She picked up the book on top and stared at it for a moment. "Seventeen? There are seventeen books?" She turned to me then. "Do you have seventeen books?"

"No, not on me, but Beryl does." I tried to remember her other name, but I couldn't. There were too many dragons with gem names. "More than that, but I never was much of a counter."

"More? How is that possible?" She stared down at the book. "I have to tell Augusta when I get back. She will never believe it." She glanced towards me then. "I don't believe it now. How do I know you aren't lying? To force me into compliance?"

"I am not that good with people." That didn't seem to give her much confidence in me but she turned back to the book, so I assumed it was good enough for her.

"Do you have other books?" She set that book down. "Oh, it's another one."

"Did you assume that I only had copies of one book?" I laughed for a minute. The girl looked up and stared at me. My laughter slowly died off as I realized that she didn't think that it was an impossible idea. Maybe she had lived with Tea Cup Dragons her whole life? No, they have a lot of books there. Well, I'm out of ideas now.

"It isn't that bad of an idea." She put the other book down. It was book three of the Queen Diana series. It wasn't the best, but it did have the first appearance of Duchess Starshine of the Griffin Empire. She was my favorite background character. She was apparently going to get her own spin off next year, but I was skeptical that it was going to be any good since it was by the same person who wrote the Princess Lillian spin off. I had such high hopes for that one too. "Many books are destroyed, so having many of them means that more survive."

"People destroy books?" The thought burned through me. The very idea of someone- I shuddered sharply- hurting books just sat wrong with me. It was a complete disaster. I would have to put a stop to it.

"Yes. In the raids." She said it so calmly as if this wasn't news. As if it happened every night. "You are lucky when it is just books. Sometimes, it is people. You don't get them back afterwards. That's why I have to be there for Augusta. She can't protect herself from the raids."

"Augusta is your sister?" It sounded like it belonged to a female.

"Yes. My little sister." She moved the book down to the growing pile on my bed. "You have a lot of books about this queen character. Why?"

"Because Queen Diana is awesome." And that was that. She turned towards me then looked back down to the book. She placed book seven down then moved on to Fairy Fails and Other Blunders, a young kit's book about a failing fairy who wanted to grant people's wishes, but it never worked out like they expected. But it turned out in the end that the spells they cast had a good effect on the castee that they hadn’t expected. It was a good book, but a little kittenish for my taste. Beryl had recommended it to me before we had left from the Volcanic plains.

"So you limit yourself to one series?"

"No. It's just what I could carry with me." She nodded as if she understood so I didn't press farther. My ear started flicking. I noticed her looking towards my head so I forced my ear to still. The itch grew for several long moments before she finally looked away and I was able to scratch it to my heart's content. I heard a door open behind me though I didn't turn. The girl looked up and behind me with a confused look before she looked back down at the pile. Four paws behind me left no argument for who it was.

"Hello." Fin looked from me to the girl. He then said a long sling of words that Sanctuary didn't translate. Thankfully, the girl looked just as confused as I did. "Well, I'll be leaving."

"Wait." I moved slowly into his way. "What was that?"

"Huh?" He hummed distantly in his throat. "Oh, I was testing out green root's effect on sanctuary's linguistic translation effect."

"Sometimes I think you just like to talk." My ears turned as I heard Caterina's voice.

Fin laughed then nodded. "You should always love what you do." He glanced around the room. "At least that is what I told my children." The girl nodded slowly. She moved the book down to the pile. "If you are looking for something more suited for academia then I have some."

The girl looked up and towards Fin. "Are you speaking to me?"

"Yes."

"Oh. What does academia-" The word was spaced out and said slowly like she had never said it before- "mean?" Her tail was once again twitching.

"It's a study book thing." It seems Caterina hadn't left yet. "He's asking if you want any books about magic instead of Kalima's fantasy books."

"What's wrong with fantasy?" Fantasy made life worth living.

"Nothing. And I ain't saying that just because Lyra wouldn't want anything to do with me if I did say that." Caterina's tone was teasing though it annoyed me deeply for some reason that I didn't understand. I would have to ask Mimi about it at my next session. She would surely know the true reason for it. Probably something to do with my mother. Since she did hold a little too close to Fawnus style of therapy. Which was actually started under Queen Fawn the Second of Petopia and was my cousin's least favorite joke topic. As Keira was fond of pointing out. I think she enjoyed annoying one of her future sister-in-laws.

"I do ask that you don't touch any of the forbidden books because most of those are my diaries and that would just embarrass both of us badly." The girl nodded. "Well, do you want to see them?" The girl seemed to think it over for a moment before she nodded with a smile. "I'll take that as a yes."

The girl snorted. "It shouldn't be taken as anything less." She moved past me and towards Caterina. "Come on. I don't know the way there." Fin followed after her with a chuckle from deep in his throat.

I turned to look at Caterina then. She was leaning in the doorway. Her eyes were following the girl and Fin, but they turned to me then. "Kieran isn't back and Aleksandr swears up and down that he will text me when Sofia and the others get back."

"He went back?"

She nodded. "Yes, he did." She looked around the room again. "We need to clean this place again."

"Why?"

"Because we need to do something or we are going to go insane. Or more insane as the case may be." Caterina smiled lightly and tilted her head over her shoulder for a second. It looked like it was uncomfortable for her to hold.

"I'm not insane." It hurt a bit to think that she thought that I was a mad woman though I didn't show it.

"Oh, not you. I was making a joke about Aleksandr."

"Oh." I blinked. My mind was working though it wasn't working like I wanted. Right now it was trying to figure out why anyone would put anyone in an attic. It was cramped and everyone could hear unless it had thick walls. Where would they use the bathroom? Eventually the smell would get out and what are you going to do then? It's not like you could just move with them in the open. It removed the part in keeping them in the attic in the first place.

"Yeah." She smiled at me lightly. Her teeth were exposed slightly, but I didn't think she was mad at me. "So Lyra and I are going to watch a movie since there is nothing we can do in this situation."

"Which movie?" I hadn't watched many of them, but I did like the couple that I had seen.

Caterina blinked. "Lyra is picking it. Probably Shrek." She glanced towards the wall then. "Hopefully not the little mermaid again." She sighed. "I used to have a huge crush on Ariel, so I can sing every song in the movie. A few in Italian, most of them in French, and all of them in Spanish." I smiled at her even though I barely understood the movie she was talking about. It did seem like a huge accomplishment. I had managed to recite most of my etiquette book by the time I was twelve. That was mostly because I had to though. "Are you going to join us? I promise that we won't make out all the way through the movie."

"Yes. Thank you."

"No problem. Lyra and I are used to tempering our passions around Aleksandr." She smiled at me again. "Especially when he starts offering tips." She shook her head sharply. "It is just embarrassing."

"That does seem like it would be embarrassing." I didn't spend much time around people, but I could see why that would be terrible. Caterina nodded slowly then looked over her shoulder.

"Beauty and the Beast." She turned to me. "The live action version. We may have to break up."

"What?" I blinked.

Caterina laughed. "I was kidding. We have been together much too long for this to break us up." She turned back to me. "Plus, she scares me a bit." She smiled again. "Not sure if I like it or not." She moved away from the wall then into the other room. I followed after her. Even if I ended up being a third wheel on this, I would at least have fun. Lyra turned to look at me. We had turned one of the side rooms into a living room for now. Or Seraphine had when she discovered that she didn't have a portable DVD player to listen to her CDs. At least that was the reason she gave me.

"Kalima is joining us," Lyra said. She had put her hair up and kicked off her shoes. In her hand was a brightly colored DVD that I couldn't read the title of since her hand was in the middle of it.

"Yes," I said. Lyra nodded then went into the room. There was a slight chip in the stone about halfway up the stone. Caterina followed after Lyra and I followed after Caterina.

The room looked like it had been thrown together and most of it had been. There was an old couch in faded pink across from a black T.V. on the wall. Under it was a small shelf with a movie player on it. Aside from the couch was a couple of chairs in both light pink and blue. I sat down on the couch. Lyra had walked over to the T.V. and was currently putting on the movie. Caterina sat down next to me. Her legs were crossed under her. Lyra grabbed the remote and walked over to us. She sat down next to Caterina. She leaned over and rested her head on her shoulder. Lyra went through the menus until she reached the play screen.  
~Kieran~  
You know, sometimes I will admit that I am an idiot though my sisters will never let me forget it. This is one of those times. Taking my sister to meet my ex to discuss freeing his family from a spell placed on them by the Rouges. Right now, they were eating vanilla ice cream. Well, Vanessa was eating vanilla ice cream with whipped cream on it while Ink Drop was eating strawberry. I was eating chocolate which had gotten a few stares from the other patrons. Though I had gotten a lot of stares anyway since I was black in a sea of white furred people. "So I was, like," This girl had just walked over to us and sat down. "Yeah, and Traci went with Cookie Crumbles to the ball, so I had to go with Hani. Now, she won't talk to me. What should I do, Teach?"

"Apologize," Vanessa said as she moved her spoon through her cup of ice cream.

"Nah."

"Well, I'm out of solutions." A cute boy walked in followed closely by a black speckled female wearing a golden dress. 

The girl turned to look at them. Her face scrunched up and hate blazed in her eyes. "What are they doing here?" She stood up and stormed up to them.

I turned back to Vanessa and Ink Drop. "So who was that?" I flicked my ear slowly.

"Dew Drop, a girl from my third hour class." Ink Drop snapped up the cherry on top of his sundae. "She is a handful, but her mom is sleeping with Lord Draco."

"Really?" Vanessa flicked her ear. "Weird. Isn't he married?"

"Since when does that stop people in the Icy Mountains?" I snorted sharply. "But we are off topic."

"Yeah. I was about to show Ink Drop your baby pictures." Vanessa smiled at him coyly. "I still have a couple that I haven't shown him yet."

"That isn't why we are here." I glared at her. I knew that she wouldn't actually show him pictures in public. "We are trying to figure out how to get the shield spell off of his family."

"Oh. They are doing a lot better since the dragons started relaying supplies to them. I even gave the purple cub a note to them." Ink Drop removed the spoon from his muzzle. "They didn't write back, but it was still nice."

"Well, since Kieran wants to be all serious. Let's get down to business." Vanessa set down her spoon. "What is the spell made of?"

"Magic?" Ink Drop shrugged. "I was never really good at magic."

"That's going to be a problem. I could brute force it, but the Rouges would know. Especially if it didn't work." It was always a surprise when I learned new things about my siblings after all of these years. Right now, she was folding her napkin into origami. I didn't even know that she knew what that was. "I could use a nexus stone to funnel power away from the spell, but they are incredibly rare. I had one, but I have no idea where it is now. I think Cassandra has one or was it Nathaniel?" She turned her head towards me.

"I don't have any idea what a nexus stone is."

She nodded. "It's a stone that soaks up ambient magic in the air. I could use it to funnel magic away from the area, so that the spell can't use it. Maybe even funnel magic away from the spell itself."

"But you don't have one." She shook her head. "So you can't do that."

"No. Not unless I find it." She sighed and set down the napkin now folded into a rose. "I'll ask around. Beside that, I would need to get inside the shield spell and find its anchor point. It could have multiple anchors depending on how strong the spell is." She turned to look at Ink Drop. "Since you can get letters in, ask them if they see anything that is obviously feeding the spell. That would be the anchor."

"I'll ask."

"Please do." Vanessa picked up the rose and started unraveling it. "Now, we handled our business?" I shrugged. "Good. I'm going to eat my ice cream." I went back to my own ice cream, almost grumpy. This hadn't gone the way that I wanted it to, but it had gone well enough.  
~Seraphine~  
"So you’re saying that someone actually wants to adopt the spider babies when they hatch?" I stared down at Frosta. She nodded. "Who?"

"Rosa Lopez." She moved closer to the small bunch of eggs holding onto the wall. Her hand reached out and ran along the surface of it. The outside had changed to a golden color. I didn't have the stomach to ask why.

I blinked as I tried to place the name. "Sofia's aunt?"

Frosta nodded. "Yes. Apparently she was in a relationship with Charlotte before she passed, so she feels responsible for the hatchlings." She moved back towards me. "I am actually glad. Babette is deeply jealous of any other spider to hold my attention. That is with them being her blood, so I really don't want to chance it." I stared as the spider body started to move within the sack.

I looked around them. Every wall was covered in the pod. I don't know how Frosta managed to transport all of them, but she didn't lose a single one. "How do we know she didn't bug-" I smiled at my joke-"the spiders with some kind of tracking spell."

Frosta turned towards me. "Because I would know if she did. This is my talent."

I smiled. "It's good that you found it so young." Everyone of us had magic that lent itself to one area, but we had to discover it for ourselves. I personally think that our magic would lend itself to anything and we just find things we like then we stick with them. I personally liked the idea of changing my talent every so often. I didn't like the idea of never changing.

"I thought so." She glared at me then. "Spiders aren't bugs. They are arachnids."

"Is there a difference?" I smiled at her as she started to twitch.

"Yes. There is." Then she snorted. "You are messing with me." Her ear started to flick. "Alexei does it, too."

"All siblings mess with each other. It's a fact of the universe." I nodded slowly. Kieran and I enjoyed messing with each other. Though sometimes, both of us go way too far and we have to apologize.

"Oh," Frosta was staring above me. "It's time for you to go."

"What, why?" I looked up. The sight that greeted me was something out of a horror movie. The back end of a spider was right above me while the other end was wiggling its way out. "Oh, gross." I moved out of the way. "I'm going to leave." 

I pulled and the door to Sanctuary appeared before me. I opened the door and walked in. A song was drifting from the living room, so I moved towards it after I shut the door behind me. Kalima was sitting primly on the couch watching the movie while Lyra was dozing on Caterina's shoulder. "What are you watching?" I walked over and sat on the arm of the couch. I shimmed back until my back was against the back of the chair. Caterina glared at me. I didn't see why since Lyra was still asleep and I had said it as quietly as I could.

"Beauty and the beast. It is apparently an adaption of a french storyteller's tale." Kalima smiled at me brightly. Seems that she wanted to impress me with the new knowledge she had gained.

"Huh." I smiled back at her for a moment. Caterina looked at me suspiciously. I didn't understand why. I was being polite. Maybe all of the time in the human realm had damaged her social skills. Humans did tend to be on the rude side. Kieran said it had to do with differences in what we considered polite, but I just think they like to be rude. It is while Ragnar likes them. I turned back to the movie. I had seen it several times before, it was one of Nathaniel's favorites, I allowed my mind to wonder.

Delta and I had a date tomorrow night. It was sure to be wonderful. I had planned everything down to the last detail. We would go out and raid a dungeon in sector twelve. Then afterwards we would go to a tavern for drinks. Just enough to get tipsy, not full on drunk. Then we would come back here to end the night. It was a truly romantic evening. Of course that was only if nothing came up today. Even if it did, we would still handle it together.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it gets a bit spicy at the end. Nothing above PG, but it is more suggestive than I usually write.

I groaned low in my throat. My stomach was still stinging from the pain of the first kick when the second came. I heard the click of a tea cup against a plate then the door was flung open. "Myra, are you okay?" I smiled at him weakly.

"Just the baby kicking." I grimaced as the baby kicked once again. "I swear if this kit does become a hunter I am going to be surprised."

Frey smiled. "Or maybe this one will be the warrior we wanted."

I turned to look at him crossly. "Frey."

He held up his hands sharply. "I love Kalima." I snorted. I know he did. He had plenty of chances to leave us before now. "It's just another baby is a chance to share my experience."

"You're going to share something." I wrinkled my nose. "Wait. Forget that one. It was terrible."

"Don't worry. I'm just going to blame it on your preg-"

I glared at him sharply. "Don't even go there. I'm still young enough to get a plea of insanity." Frey snorted and I laughed shortly. A sharp jangle came from the mirror then. I stared at Frey for a minute before he shrugged. "Alright. Answer call." I turned then towards the mirror. Estella was leaning back on her hands and smiling like she had a secret to tell me.

"My queen." I nodded as regally as I could. Frey had moved out of view of the mirror. We had quite deliberately tested it during a particularly frisky night. Thankfully, Layla was very discreet so we didn't have to worry about it getting out. Especially after a visit from Estella. I hadn't asked what exactly had happened as they were talking though they both seemed happy enough with the outcome.

"I hope that you have a reason for calling me at-" I drew in sharply as the baby kicked yet again. "This hour."

She nodded sharply. "Yes. I do." She glanced around the room with a lazy smile. "Now, you have good news, bad news, and irreverent but funny news. Which one do you want first?" Her fur was vanishing now to be replaced by scales.

I thought it over for a second before I decided. "The bad news."

She nodded. "No one has seen Delphine for the past two nights." I drew in a sharp breath. That couldn't be good. "I have sent out my feelers through the web, but no one has reported anything yet."

"What is the good news?"

She smiled brightly. "Well," She drew the word out. "Thanks to moi, I have managed to hook up Lady Lily's daughter with the prince of the griffin empire."

I smiled at her. "That is good news." Then a thought hit me then. "How do we know that Lily won't use this for her advancement?" She was constantly looking for something to give her a foothold in my court that couldn’t be taken away.

Estella nodded and looked solemn. "She's going to, but better the demon we know then the ones we don't. Thankfully, my friends there have given me a pretty good idea of the major players over there. I will be sad to lose her though."

I nodded. "I know you were planning on making her your apprentice, but we all must make sacrifices for the kingdom." I glanced towards Frey to see him making the sort of faces he would make when Kalima was small. I sent him a harsh glare then turned back to Estella with my regal mask in place. "I'm sure that you can find another one though."

She nodded. "I already have a few ideas. Though they might not pan-" She smiled and drew out the word-"Out." I smiled at her. No need to be rude to the lady who knew all of my secrets. Even if her puns were lame. I had heard worse from Frey. Surprisingly he had gotten worse after Kalima was born. I had honestly thought he had hit rock bottom. On his puns. We hadn't gotten around to that yet.

Okay, I need to get my mind out of the gutters before I lose all of the respect that I had earned over the years. "What was the funny news?"

"Oh, we thought that Evangeline had vanished with Delphine- either as a hostage or an accomplish we weren't sure- but we found her with a bottle of booze in one of the supply closets." Estelle tapped her fingernails against the bed rail slowly. "She is currently sobering up in the dungeon next to an ice queen prisoner." She huffed. "We had to start feeding him. He would have starved if we didn't, apologizes, my queen."

My fur stood on end for a second. That male deserved whatever punishment I had deigned to give him. I breathed in deeply and let it go. It was the humane thing to do. Make sure that he didn't escape punishment by dying early. "I won't say that I am happy about it, but I understand the wisdom in your decision."

Estella nodded. "I know that you can't travel in your current condition." She nodded at my belly. It had ballooned out recently. I could barely see the edges of my paws. "But current things are piling up, my queen. We haven't been able to send any of the prisoners without your signature and you are aware of the effect of teleportation on court paper." I nodded. My mother had been paranoid about her documents falling into the wrong hands that she had decreed that all paper prepared for court use had to be spelled against teleportation. It made sending love notes very awkward. There was nothing romantic about sending someone a fireball. Unless you were into that kind of thing, but neither us were.

"There is nothing we can do about it. Keep looking for Delphine." She nodded. "We need to find her. Did you search the desert clan? They had an increase in break-ins. The Sun Priestess even reported one to us so we have increased our spy presence there."

I blinked and turned my head slowly to glare at her with full power. "Why wasn't I informed of this?"

She blinked. "I was busy. Though I was sure that Kalima would have told you. The champions were put on the case before we arrived. Thankfully they seem to be too busy with something in the Icy Mountains. My agents weren't able to tell me what exactly it is, but we aren't exactly worried about it." She breathed in deeply through her nose. "Your daughter should be able to tell you about it if you are desperate for information, but we just don't have the manpower to do both right now."

I waved it away. "I understand. The break-ins are more pressing." I wasn't really all that worried about what Caterina and Kalima were up to. No matter what Kalima and her friends would have people believe. "Have you started the preparations for Kalima's court?" It would be a couple years before she was ready for it, but it would take me that long to finish the prep work.

She shook her head. "No, but it is on my to-do list. I have consulted with Lady Astrid and both Captains." She glanced towards her side then. "I still can't remember," Her voice had changed then to hold a bit of a swamplands draw. "If you would forgive me," She stood up and her kanji disguise slithered over her form. The connection ended and I turned towards where Frey had been. He wasn't there, so I stood up with a grunt. That male just left me to go off doing Freya know what. You know what I hope that she doesn't know. Some things are just between us and whatever we chose to do that day.

I moved forward until I reached the flap between the rooms and pulled it open. On the table in the room was a bowl of chips and a note hanging in mid-air. At least, I didn't have to bend down. I had started getting nauseous when I did so. Thankfully, Frey was kind enough to get most things that were waist level for me. Especially when I threatened to throw up on him. 

I walked over to the note and snatched it up. I opened it and read through it twice. The letter stated:

Myra, dearest, don't kill me. I left the chips as a peace offering. Lady Astrid requires my assistance with a pressing matter. At least that is what she says. I have heard her describe no chocolate chips in her oat meals as the worst thing ever. Though she was much younger than and she hates when I bring it up. I better rap this up as Lady Astrid is glaring at me now.

P.S. There is no salt on the chips. The healers were instant about you watching your sodium. They know how to make it look like an accident.

P.P.S I know where I sleep and that you can make it look like an accident too. We have talked about this many times. It is very attractive.  
I set down the note again and grumpily glared around. My tail started to flick. Then I noticed this rancid smell in the air. I gagged just at the smell, but I moved closer to the tent flap. My instincts were clear. This was the smell of death and I had to make sure that my kits were safe. Usually I would just send Frey to handle it, so I didn't have to put up with the smell myself.

I opened the tent flap and gazed out at the rampaging flower monster. I blinked then shut the tent flap. I stared at the back of it for a minute while I tried to figure what I had just seen then I opened it again. One of the arms of the creature was on fire and the other was squirting this amber liquid that I assumed to be sap. I sighed. "Well, that is certainly a pressing matter." That was a dumb thing to say, but it was what I said. A queen must stand by her words. Especially if no one could hold her to it. I sighed and turned back to the tent. I couldn't do magic and I wasn't going to risk my kit's lives by rushing into conflict. But I did know people who were trained to fight monsters like this.

I went from the living room to the bedroom quickly enough for it to be a new record. I glanced around the room then moved towards the mirror. I tested the mirror for ambient magic. It was a simple test and used the tiniest sliver of active magic. It wasn't a danger to the kits. It was necessary for the next part though. I would have to use a mirror call which would take a bit of magic. Not enough that I would notice it normally, but enough that it could be risky if I did anything magical afterwards.

I breathed in and shifted the magic in the mirror. It had been used to make a mirror call which made it easier to use it. I pulled my magic out slowly making sure that it was all mine. It was hard since the babies didn't technically have any magic of their own, they had to use mine until they were born. A couple months after that, usually before six months, but there have been cases where magic didn't come until they were two. It was extremely rare though so anyone that hasn't shown magic talent by six months is assumed to be a berserker. It came close with Kalima, but she came into her magic. It had been a bit weak, but it had come. Thankfully or she couldn't be the heir. Thanks to my mother's law. Though she had only brought back a really old law that not even Emerald had known existed. I was sure that she was a golem created by the first queen to serve as the controller of her household.

I was drawn out of my thoughts then as one of the captains of the Omtisu stared back at me. She appeared grumpy. I must be losing my touch since I was trying to call Freya. She looked at me and I felt the connection sever then and her magic pour out of the mirror. I called back my magic and held my hand to my stomach. I could still feel them moving around, but I would go to the healers after the whole flower power thing. "What do you want? The Empress is busy with court now." She continued to stare at me though she seemed to be softening.

"A flower monster is tearing up the Volcanic Plains camp."

She nodded slowly. "We know. Eliza said that she is going to handle it. She took a team of twelve. They should be there soon." The mirror went black then. I turned and walked back over to the bed. There was nothing that I could do, so I shouldn't allow myself to become a hindrance.

Over the next few moments, there was the crackle of flames outside, loud curses, and a few words that I didn't understand screaming harshly. Then there was a crashing sound and a female griffin screamed her victory. That or a siren since the sound was bird like. 

I stood up and walked outside. The flower was on the ground pinned by braided ropes. I moved towards where the warriors were celebrating. As I walked closer, I noticed a large griffin female hovering over a black furred female kanji. They looked like they were either hook-up buds or romantically together. A dark part of my brain was repulsed by it, but the rational part beat it down. No matter the problems of the past, I couldn't let it corrupt my viewpoint today. I forced myself to look towards the other members of the group.

There was a scarred wolf male wearing a blue tunic with purple butterflies on the edge of it. Beside him was a tall kanji woman wearing Hyenic garb spotted with white butterflies. Standing on top of the flower in a blue wrap dress was a short- my mind stopped for a second as I tried to connect what I was seeing with what I knew of- kitsune woman. Kitsunes were extinct though. Then the pieces clicked together. Of course, the omitsu would have a few extinct species in their numbers. They guarded the land of the dead. It made sense.The kitsune woman was holding a box and smiling though I didn't understand why. A little away from the group was a city griffin male wearing grassland garb. One of his ears was marked with a golden band in a Hyenic style. Though it was on the wrong side for a male. Beside him was a tiny lupian woman with big hair and bright clothing. Behind her was a pair of scarlet wings banded with yellow and ended in bright blue. It was strange to see one of the Hybrids that weren't in my employ, but I chalked it up to Freya's desire not to be bested and many years of experience on me. A dark shade glared around them from about the flower's toe. Pretty enough, but I preferred my partners to be corporal. I was picky like that. Next to them was a tall city griffin. Around her waist were several pouches marked with elaborate embroidery. Next to Eliza was two old women, a siren female and a mountain griffin. The griffin had a fresh cut that the siren was fussing over like an old bitty. I smiled inwardly at my little joke.

Then I looked around again as I realized that Frey wasn't in their numbers. I walked up to Eliza since she was obviously in charge given her rank and that she was the only one that I personally knew. "Mayura." She ducked her head and the old ladies stepped away.

"I got to get this old fool to the healer den, captain," The siren said as she wrapped a wing around the griffin's shoulders.

"Leona, you are old. I am a spring chicken." The griffin laughed as Leona slapped her lightly with her wing. My heart ached then as I thought about Frey and I being like that when we were their age. The chances were that we wouldn't live long enough, but I wanted it more than anything then. Aside from some decent chips. The healers had already swayed the cooks against me.

I shook myself and turned back to Eliza. "Princess." She blinked. "I see that you bested the-" I glanced at the creature long enough for the silence to get awkward. "The flower golem."

She shrugged. "It was a team effort." Her chin lifted and she looked behind me as her eyes glowed for a second. The glow ended and she turned to me. "You were looking for Frey right?" I nodded. "Alright. Come with me. There is a problem we need to address." She took a deep breath in. I pinned my ears back as I knew what was coming. "Kara, Viv, and Rosa get the flower golem to Luna, please." She tilted her head. "George, Tanya, and Tatiana, go check on Leona and Sigrid." She turned then to the lupians. "Lauren, Luka. Go see what is for dinner here. We might end up staying." She looked around quickly. "Has anyone seen Toni?" The other looked around.

"No," they said mostly at once.

"Great. New plan. Luka, Lauren, makes sure that they didn't get eaten." She breathed then turned back to me. "The rest of the plan didn't change. Move out." They moved off into groups. A few of them grumbled, but they still went. "Well, come with me. Lady Astrid's tent. Quickly now." She gestured for me to follow her as she turned and moved swiftly between the tents. I followed after her at a slower pace. While I could still see my feet, the extra weight was taking a while to get used to. Back when I had Kalima, I didn't expand this much until I was about to give birth.

I glanced at Eliza then. We had almost reached the craftsman's circle. "I don't remember Kalima ever being this active when she was young."

Eliza glanced back at me and nodded. "Different kits. Some are more active than others." She adjusted her scarf then. I noticed a large male walking past. He had a hammer and looked like a blacksmith. She smiled at him sweetly then turned back forward. We had made it past the third ring of craftsmen. Even if the stereotype was that Volcanic were all war-like, it takes a large number of people to keep the warriors in supply. Of course, since they are at war, most of the crafters were drafted into warrior training.

A woman in armor was sitting in front of a tent with a book in her lap. She was scratching away at it with a pen. Beside her was a small kit of four or five intently staring at the page. I smiled at the domestic picture then turned away before it got creepy. 

There were enough rumors about me without it getting out that I was attracted to kits again. That was Delphine's handywork. Aside from her, I was directly responsible for a third of the rumors against and Estelle was responsible for another fourth. She didn't think that it was necessary to control every story that went around. There were a few that got way out of hand. Thankfully, we were mostly in charge of that uprising, so it didn't get farther than a few rallies and a couple brawls. Tiny bit of looting too, but the store owners were directly compensated. One of Delphine's actually brilliant ideas that wasn't supposed to undermine my authority. I think she recognized that she had gone too far with the kit rumor. Didn't want to lose her job.

We had reached the last ring before the cooks then. Lady Astrid's tent was usually set up in the front, but there had been a bit of a flea problem break out recently. She had set up another tent in the center of camp while the fleas were being dealt with. There had been several unsavory rumors about her and a nidling woman that had lead to her getting the fleas, but I didn't believe them. Her and Kagura had been a thing since before I was born so I didn't see that changing anytime soon and Kagura's children were perfectly groomed. I didn't see them learning good grooming from a woman with fleas.

Eliza stopped and looked around slowly. I stopped and held a hand lightly to my belly. The kits hadn't moved yet, but it was only a matter of time. Hopefully, I wouldn't pee on a chair again. It had been embarrassing to explain during the meeting. Thankfully, most of the jarls had kits born to him and the few that didn't had mates or pridemates that had gone through this. Many had grandkits, too. "Which way was it? The kitchen to the right or the left?" She mumbled the last bit as she looked around.

I pointed off to the right. "This way. Close to the breakfast area." Eliza nodded slowly. "Anything for her to get the best seat at breakfast."

"I never got the best seat at breakfast. There were too many of us to get there before the stampede." She followed the path I had pointed to. It was easy enough. It was in the back, close enough to the first ring, but still far enough to be separate. At this time of day, the shadow from the stage covered the whole house. Eliza opened the tent flap for me and I walked inside. Not much had changed from her normal house. The bedspread was blue and there was a bit more paper on the table, but that was all. Frey was sitting across the room from Lady Astrid who was sitting on her bed. In her hand was a piece of paper that she was reading. Frey turned to look at me from the map in his hands.

"Hello, darling. A flower golem attacked the camp." I gave him a tight smile. "I am unharmed as you can see." Frey nodded and looked towards Lady Astrid then. I kept my full attention on Frey, but I could see Lady Astrid well enough. Eliza moved into the room and stood to the side of Lady Astrid's bed.

"Yes, we heard the noise." I turned completely towards Lady Astrid then. She had set the paper down on her nightstand. "I considered going to help, but it seemed to be well in hand. This was more important, of course."

"What is this? If you don't mind me asking," Eliza said. Her voice had changed then. A strange accent moving over her words. "Pardon me." Her voice was back to normal then. "Apologies. I have trouble with it during times of stress."

Lady Astrid's ear flicked quickly. "Oh? What is so stressful that it made you lose control of your senses?"

Eliza smiled at her. "Battle lust."

I hummed. I was feeling it too. Not as bad as her since she actually participated in it while I had to sit on the sidelines. But after all of this, Frey and I would not be leaving the house for a while. And covering the mirror. This isn't one of those sessions. "Ah, I can understand that." Frey nodded. "That is how Kalima happened." Very exciting night. Lady Astrid looked at me in disapproval for a minute before she looked away.

"Most kits are made that way. The high of battle overrides basic sense." Her voice dripped disapproval. Just proving my point about how she got fleas. No one is that grouchy when they are burrowing with a loved one. Though they could have gotten into a fight. Oh, the pre-make up period is the worst, but the makeup is the best part. Quite a few of our make-ups actually lead to trips to the healers. Sadly it never led to anything until this one. I think the gods wanted me to forget what it felt like to be pregnant before they gifted me with her.

Eliza smiled. "Yep. Good sense is in short supply when the blood is rushing." Her tail flicked slowly. "Enough with the small talk." She moved closer to Lady Astrid. "Time for business. I know that you received a message from The Night Bringer. The omitsu will need to see it."

Lady Astrid handed her the message. "I can't say that I am happy about it, but I understand."

I repressed a snort. A control freak like her? She was dying inside and she can't show it without snubbing the Empress. That would be very bad since there was already some tension between the omitsu and the Althing. I was officially staying out of this since it would just lead to tensions between the council and me or the empress and I. Neither was something I looked forward to, so I was waiting to see what would happen. "Yeah." I stiffened as I realized that it had slipped out. Thankfully, I had a seamstress made excuse for situations like this. "Sorry about that. The kit decided to play dragonball with a few of Mother's organs."

They nodded. I was surprised that Eliza didn't argue, but I didn't exactly say which ones so I could argue that it was possible. "So Reyna is inviting us to join her for a chat?" Lady Astrid nodded. "Good. We have been waiting for her to make an appearance since we got back. We are in a pretty vulnerable position." My ear flicked slowly. There were two reasons Eliza would have said that. The first would be that she trusted us. It would be humbling for someone like her to trust us. The second reason was more likely though it was less heartwarming, she was telling us to see if the information was leaked. She would know if we were a spy if it happened. I had used the exact same tactic on several people.

"We should inform Kalima about this." I turned towards Frey then. It would be smart to tell the champions. My tail flicked slowly.

Eliza nodded her head. "The champions have already been informed. Reyna took it upon herself to tell them. Since the letter doesn't have demands on it we can tell that she doesn't have hostages." Then she blinked. "Well," She drew out the word, "She might be saving that for the meeting. Better reveal options." She looked down at her hand then gave the letter back to Lady Astrid.

"That's messed up." Images flew through my head. Kalima mangled to pieces, her soul used in some ritual. They kept coming. The images became worse the more they came. A hand settled on my shoulder. I almost jumped, but I saw Frey out of the corner of my eye. I leaned back into him. His tail wrapped around my paws. I wrapped my tail around his paws. He leaned his head onto my shoulder and started to purr lightly. I couldn't help, but purr back at him.

"Uh, straight people." I was drawn out of my happy little world by Lady Astrid's comment. "Necking in my house."

"They weren't necking. He was comforting her. Just because you're bitter about your and Kagura's fight doesn't give you reason to-"

"And you gays ain't much better cuz. Didn't Aunt Jezebel catch you and Kagura mating in the middle of camp."

I looked over at her. She actually looked happy. "Yeah, she did, but it was Beltane. Everyone turns into degenerates then." Her tail looped around her waist. "Didn't you and Mayura get caught feeling each other up back in guard rotation?"

Eliza turned to me. "I feel like I am missing something here."

I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine." I sighed deeply. "Though it doesn't seem like it is going to dissolve into fighting any time soon."

"Does that happen often?"

"Only on Wednesdays." I knew the probing question wasn't intended to find any weakness, but I couldn't let her in that easily.

She nodded sagely. "That makes sense. Nothing happens on Wednesdays anyway." She was strange, but I could feel a special connection with her forming. My guard went up with that thought. Mind magic wasn't widely studied, mostly because the caster could just lie and get away with it, but there were several known ways of making it inconvenient to go spelunking in other's mental thoughts. Most of them were found by Lady Nadia, a past grasslands lady who wanted to send out invitations to everyone in the grasslands at once. She was a bit crazy, but her methods did work. Occasionally, they involved a lot of fire though.

I grunted as a sharp kick to my kidney informed me that the babe was awake. Everyone turned to look at me with worry. "No worries. Just a kick. I'm fine." Though if these babies moved around anymore I might consider hiring a nanny for a couple months. Just so I could sleep. That might be best actually. Someone to watch the kits while I went over court stuff and Frey helped with the guard. At least until I could start hiring tutors to educate them. I would have to start looking for someone though.

"Ah." Eliza turned to Lady Astrid. "Now, she wants to meet us-" She stared at Lady Astrid.

"Tomorrow. At moonhigh." I nodded. It made sense. Reyna was a goddess and most of them were connected to the moon. And her title was the night bringer. Which should have been the first thing I thought of, but my growing parasite has affected my brain capacity. Especially when they started kicking at my bladder. Then I can only think about how mad I am at them and how I need to change my dress then. Kalima wasn't this annoying. She was a good kit, even in my womb. This kit is going to come out red as Sekhmet and twice as evil. I might need to have several nannies for her. Just to make sure that she doesn't scare off one and it takes months for me to find another one. Oh, my life was starting to become a bad novel. Green vomit coating the walls and all. That would be the tag-line. I just need a decent title. Duh, the Sekhmet-Cursed kit from the seven dimension. Wait, that was terrible. I'll just think of one later.

"So what are we going to do about it?" The sentence hung in the air after the long silence. Especially since Frey hadn't spoken much this meeting. I think having a member of the imperial family here had left him a bit starstruck. One has to put up with these things when you mate with a good volcanic boy. Or maybe, he was coming down with something. I hope not.

Eliza breathed in deeply. "Sad to say, we have to follow her demands." Lady Astrid turned her head quickly to stare at her in shock while I turned towards Frey. He looked resigned to everything. I was going to have to talk to him about this later. "Just for now. Until we know if she has hostages or not. To be safe though we are going to have to have others in on this." Her tail was flicking like crazy. "Not too many of them. People lead to leaks. Leaks lead to dead good people, so we are going to have to play this close to us. I will tell my team." She turned to Lady Astrid then. "If you would inform a couple of your people. People that you trust completely."

"I have a couple of ideas." Her tone was clipped.

"Good. We will need time to coordinate this all, so we should choose quickly."

"But not too quickly." Everyone turned to look at me. "We can't let the short time frame lead to unforgivable mistakes." They nodded. I kept my eye on Frey. He looked empty inside like his soul fire had been doused in water. I moved over to his side and placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned to look me in the eye. I smiled at him reassuringly. He gave me a weak smile, but he placed his hand over mine then squeezed it tightly.

"Mayura is correct,"Astrid said. I nodded. Of course, I was right. I had said a common sense thing and if you didn't see it then you are an idiot.

"She usually is," Frey said. I purred lightly at him. "Just ask her." I stopped purring and glared at him. A part of me was glad that he seemed to be coming back to himself even if it was at my expense. Though I can never let him know it.

A loud beeping sounded then. My ears swished left to right to pick up where it came from. Eliza looked uncomfortable and started going through several pockets on her uniform. She even had one on her head scarf. All the while, she was muttering quietly enough that I could only hear the hint of the word, not the whole word. Finally, she pulled a flat disk out of one of her pockets, rotated the purple gem on top, and opened it. I noticed that the gem was cut into a butterfly shape. That reminded me of something, but I couldn't actually remember what it was. "Sorry. I have to get this. Ragnar said that he would only call if it was urgent." She pointed behind her and walked out. I could hear a conversation going on, but I honestly didn't try to catch any of the words. Eventually, she came back with a grimace. "Sorry for just leaving like this, but apparently Frostia decided to be sweet and make dinner. Of course, she locked Nana out to do it which was less sweet and one thing led to another, so there was apparently a fire. We lost the kitchen again. So I am desperately needed at home is what I am saying."

I nodded. "I can understand that." Lady Astrid sighed, but she nodded. Eliza smiled and left the room. I turned to Lady Astrid. "We should be on our way." I looked at Frey meaningfully and gestured towards the door.

Behind me was the sound of springs bouncing back into place. I turned towards the noise. Lady Astrid stared back at me. "I should be on my way. I have other things to do as well." I placed my tail around Frey's paws and smiled. He gave a short snort and stood up. I moved my tail so that he could move without stepping on it. We walked back to our tent in silence. Mostly, because Lady Astrid walked with us to our door. Frey closed the door tightly and turned to me. There was a hunger in his eyes that I had seen many times before I smiled and closed the gap between us. We pressed our mouths together and soon it was an explosion of lips and teeth and tongue

~Later~

My head was resting on Frey's shoulder as we snuggled together. I could hear his heartbeat all around me. "So what was the matter with you earlier?"

"I told you that there is nothing sexy about grabbing-"

"No, no. Not that. During the meeting." It wasn't my fault that his tail was the only thing in grabbing range at that moment. He was the one that wanted to play that game.

He sighed. "It's- It's just the thought of Kalima being-" He stopped talking. I snuggled in closer to him. It wasn't easy since we are already pretty much on top of each other. Though if we were there wasn't going to be much talking.

"I understand, but-" I stopped as I tried to remember when I had last called Kalima. I was going to right after the call to Estelle, but there was the whole thing with the flower demon and everything after that. "She can take care of herself." I told myself that a lot nowadays.

He rubbed his face against mine and started to purr loudly. "It's strange to have you be the one to say that." I nodded. It was strange, but life has a wicked sense of humor.

"I know." My ear flicked.

"Yes. We will just have to wait to see what The Night Bringer has up her sleeves." I started to purr. The air between us took on a kind of sleepy daze to it and before I knew it I had drifted off to Dreamland.


	15. Chapter 15

My head was pounding. I wiggled slightly then got to my hands and knees. "Oh, Myra darling, you are awake." The voice was thick with malice. I looked around me as I tried to remember why the voice sounded so familiar, but I couldn't think past the pounding of my head. "Is the poor darling hurting?" She, I could hear that it was feminine, was speaking to me like a kit. My fur started to rise. I looked around, but couldn't see her. Around me were thick trees, the sun was blaring down on me, and below me was thick grass. I stood up, even though I just wanted to curl up into a ball on the ground.

"Who are you?" I tried to look defiant, but I had no idea where the voice was coming from.

"Oh, you don't recognize me? I am hurt. Truly hurt. I thought we were friends." The voice cackled. Actually cackled. Like some kind of oath-breaker mage in waiting room fiction. You would think that the healers would invest in better stories, but they don't. "Well, since you ain't getting out of here, I might as well tell you. Evangeline is the name you know me by."

The name sparked a memory. Standing on a raft half built while a dark furred kanji yelled at me from the shore. "I remember now."

"Oh, good. That will make this so much better." The cackle was accompanied by a snort this time. Suddenly there was the sound of metal scraping against metal and a bloodthirsty howl. "Run, darling. The hounds have been released." My eyes widened and I stumbled off into a run. The trees welcomed me into an almost comfortable darkness. I just kept running as fast as I could. I never saw the hounds though occasionally I would catch a flash of red out of the corner of my eye. Above me, I caught the flash of a dark cape. My sides were starting to heave with every breath. All of this running was starting to get to me. I was out of shape. I stopped and almost doubled over to catch my breath.

I heard the slight rustle of leaves above me and suddenly a blue face appeared above me. "Hi. You're new here. I know, because I know everyone, so what got you sent to MOH?" The voice was chipper, almost happy.

"Who are you?"

She blinked her orange eyes, her black hair falling over her curled horns. "I asked you first."

"No, you didn't. You asked me what got me sent here."

She appeared to think for a second before she nodded. "So I did. I'm Nocturna Shadowscale." Her smile turned wider. "Now you tell me your name."

"Queen Mayura of-"

"So you run a city?" She kept staring at me. "Cool. You know," She flipped herself up then dropped down to my level. "I think that we can help each other."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "What are you suggesting?"

She moved slowly around me. Her eyes looked up at me and a devilish smile on her face. "Well, I know the way out of here. I might be willing to tell you." She moved closer to me. Her face barely reached my chest. Behind her swung a thin tail topped with a small bard. "For a small price." Her shirt hung loosely about her like she hadn't eaten in a while. A part of me wept for this scrap of fluff, but the rest of me knew that I couldn't let her take advantage of me.

"And what would that be."

She moved over to the tree and leaned on it, the smirk never leaving her face. "Protection. For me and my brother. You got a cushy gig." Her tail wrapped around her legs then. "We won't be a burden. Just food and shelter." She walked forward until she was about a foot from me and bowed lowly. "So what do you say, huh?"

I looked down at her. She wasn't asking much, but I couldn't let her hold all of the cards. "Protection from what?"

She stood up and nodded deeply at me. "Well, for one," She pointed up, "The Night Bringer."

I nodded. "If you can get me out of here, then I will take you with me to Panthera."

Her smile widened. "Great. I have no idea where that is."

My ear flicked as I thought back on what I remembered before this. Lady Astrid, Eliza and Frey had left to the meeting. I was supposed to hang back behind them by a little while with the guards, but the unit was getting impatient. We decided to move out sooner than we had said we would, but it didn't affect anything since we got there and the clearing was completely empty. I decided to go check it out, I especially didn't run out into the clearing without even thinking about the consequences of it, and ended up ambushed. I couldn't really see her in the void-dark clearing. "So did you see any other prisoners in here besides us?" I made sure to keep my tone casual. The girl's eyes shone with greed then.

"I might have. Though what's it to you? We were getting out of here." She lifted her snout up. "I would think that you would want to get out of here as quickly as possible."

"Simple," I smiled as the girl lowered her head and stared at me in surprise. "I want to know if I can trust you. It'd be nothing for us to get out and you slit my throat before I see the sun rise." Sighing deeply as if I was wearied by life was just the cherry on top of my ruse. She was much easier to fool than Alexander. He took forever. "So you tell me if there are any other prisoners and I find out if I got people that will watch my back." Especially if she had seen Frey. Less importantly, Lady Astrid, Eliza, and the guards. I wasn't going to raise this kit all on my lonesome with a kingdom to run.

"Well," The girl's tongue rubbed against her upper teeth. The purple of the tongue provided a nice contrast to the white of her teeth. She looked thoughtfully off to the side."Aside from the old timers, there was a load of prisoners brought in with you. Though I have heard that several more were brought to isolation." She glanced back towards me and gave me her now customary grin. "If you give me a couple of days, I can find out if you are looking for someone in particular."

I stared at her. "And what would that cost me?"

The corners of her mouth shifted and she smiled at me impishly. It is amazing how much difference there could be in an expression without actually changing the type. "Consider this a freebie." She bowed deeply. "I will expect payment for this in the future though." Her tail swished and she smiled at me. Her teeth were exposed slightly. Overall, it just seemed like a threat. "Now, it's time to go to base camp."

"Base camp?"

She nodded. "Yep. Base camp. Night is going to fall soon, so we head up to Alicorn Ridge, didn't name it, some old-timer did. Malik makes great chili." I looked at her as she turned and walked off through the forest. I followed after her closely. She said a few things, but I couldn't really catch them. The scenery slowly changed. The gap between the trees widened and before long, the only trees were few and far between. The sun was still high in the sky, but I wasn't one to argue with food. The ground gradually sloped up into a gentle hill. We seemed to be headed towards a small cave above us.

A small, green head popped out of the cave and waved at us. "Hey, Nocty." The head turned back to the cave. "Nocty isn't dead and she brought a friend."

"You better have not gone through my stuff."

"And mess with your guards?" They shuddered. "No thank you." The head disappeared and I turned to my escort.

"What guards?"

Nocturna smiled at me. "You'll see." We walked up the incline until we reached the cave. I looked up the path that still led up. I turned and looked into the dark cave. Glowing stones were growing on the walls in clumps. A small fire was built around a half circle of four tents. Outside of one was the person from earlier. She was stranger than I had thought. Her scales were dark green from the stalks above her head to the wings on her back. Her hair was styled with bangs and short bobbed wave in the back. The wings didn't seem like they would be good for flying, because of the wide gaps in between the spines. There was a rustle and a small, blue boy bounced out of one of the tents. He was dressed in shabby black clothing with actually patches on it. I thought that was just things that stories made up.

Nocturna sighed deeply. "Mayura, this is Trix,"They waved at me," and Orion, both Shimmer Scales." The boy smiled and waved. "Somewhere around here is Malik and Nox."

Orion and Trix shared a glance between each other. "Um, Orion has something to tell you." They pointed towards him. The boy glared at her and stepped forward.

"Nox was taken by one of the patrols."

Nocturna froze. "What?" She seemed to look around for Nox, but he obviously wasn't here. "How?"

Trix breathed in. "He summoned Zen and tried to fight it, but he was captured. They got Malik, too."

"How do you know this?" Three sets of eyes turned to me. I shrugged.

Trix and Orion pointed up to the ceiling. "The voice said it." They turned to look at Nocturna. "How didn't you hear them?"

"I found a way out of here. Nox was supposed to keep the patrols distracted while I made sure it was legitimate." She sighed. "They don't execute them right away, right? We can get him on our way out right?"

"They are coming with us?" I wasn't opposed to the idea, but it wasn't part of our deal.

"Yes," Trix and Orion said at the same time while Nocturna nodded.

"Like it or not, they have skills we need to get out." Nocturna nodded and turned to me. "We are leaving tonight. Make ready." She walked over to a tent and slung back the door. I turned to look at Trix and Orion.

"Have you seen anybody besides us?" They both shook their heads. My stomach started squirming around. I was sure that I would find Frey and Lady Astrid here, but they weren't here. It made no sense for her to keep me here and not release them here too.

Orion moved to me. "You can sleep in Malik's tent for tonight. He won't mind." He pointed to the last tent in the row. It was strange that there were only three tents and four people. I moved towards the tent, because we should be rested if we were going to escape from here. The tent was small and held only a bed roll. I curled up on the bed roll, the scent of spices surrounded me, and soon I had drifted off to sleep.  
~Frey~  
I blinked awake and stared at the white washed walls. Below me was a comfortable bed and around me was a red blanket. "Where am I?" I sat up. There was a dresser with a picture of a lake above it. This was some sort of quest room. There was a knock at the door. "Um, come in?" The door creaked as it opened. A small kanji girl walked in. Her hair was in braids and she had glasses on her nose.

"Hello. Mother managed to snag you from a patrol thankfully, so we will send you back to wherever they grabbed you from quickly enough. Before then, Ma made lunch and she wants to know if you want some?"

"Who are you?"

"Penelope Of Leonis. Who are you?"

"Freyr of Panthera." She nodded.

"Ma owns me a favor now. I won the bet." Her tail swished. "Now that the introductions are out of the way. Follow me to the dining room." She held the door open for me then led the way down the hallway. Above each of the doors was an archway made of marble. It wasn't a long walk before she turned and opened a door in the hallway. We walked inside the room. There was a short table covered with a dark red tablecloth. There were five empty plates on the table. A door opened and a brown furred woman walked in holding a blue bowl.

"So our guest does want food? I'm glad I made enough then." She set the bowl down on the table then wiped her hand off on her pink apron. She was wearing an orange dress in Zonyian peasant style. Her hair was clipped back with a golden pin. "Penelope, why don't you go see if the other guest is going to be joining us?"

"Okay, Ma." She walked out of the room.

She turned to look at me. "I'm sorry. We weren't able to get your mate, too."

Myra was in the hands of The Night Bringer? She could be hurt. She could be killed. I didn't even know where she was, so I couldn't go and help her escape. "They got Myra?" She nodded. I have to believe that Myra will get out and she will come back to me. She was resourceful. That was one of the things I loved about her.

"Unfortunately." She sighed. "We tried, but we managed to find out where she is hiding out right now and have a couple of the order of night girls staking it out. If anyone gets out, they will see it."

"Where am I anyway?"

"Leonis." She looked at the table. "My wife recognized you, so I must apologize. She has trouble with her demons and sometimes they control her, but it is getting better."

"Your wife?" The door opened. I turned to see The Lady In Red staring back at me defiantly.

"Yep," The brunette woman said. "My wife." She walked over to stand by Sekhmet. "The other one isn't going to come to lunch?"

"No, she is mad at me and refuses to even speak to me." Sekhmet ruffled up her feathers. "I don't understand why. I didn't even kill anyone this time."

"Trying to conjure a place is considered rude by most species, Mother." Penelope walked in then sat down at the table with a smile.

"I wasn't really trying though. It was a token effort. Special effects, very little pizzazz."

The brunette woman sighed. "Why don't we get to eating? Kay-Lee is supposed to brief me after lunch and you know how it is when I am late. She treats it like a snub against her." She mumbled something else that I didn't catch.

Penelope squirmed in her seat as the brunette woman took her seat and Sekhmet sat across from her. I took the empty seat. "Tuna casserole day," Penelope sang. "It's tuna and noodles. All gooey and delicious."

The brunette woman and Sekhmet laughed. "Wonderful song," The brunette woman said.

"We might have a bard in the family."

Penelope wrinkled her nose at that. "Nuh uh, I am going to be the best mage ever." She leaned forward and took a spoonful of the stuff in the bowl then put it on her plate. She stuck her tongue out at them then grabbed her fork in her right hand. She put it in her mouth and chewed it as if in defiance. It reminded me of when Kalima was young and she and Myra would get into arguments. Most of them were about dumb things that didn't really matter, but they would go at it like it was the most important thing ever. She swallowed. "Try it. It's really good."

"Everything Natalie makes is good. She went to chef school."

"Culinary."

"That's what I said." Sekhmet turned to her.

"Yes, but culinary sounds fancier."

Sekhmet snorted. "I am fancy enough that I don't need any fancy words." She ruffled her wings then leaned forward to grasp the spoon in her beak. The spoon hovered over the plate for a minute then she tilted it over so that it spilled onto the plate into a blob. She placed the spoon back in the bowl.

I imagined for a second her using a fork and spoon to eat, but it ended when she snapped up a section of it in her beak then tilted her head back. Which was how sirens eat, but it was less amusing than the other idea. I leaned forward and grabbed the spoon. I lifted the spoon out of the bowl then spilled it's contents on my plate. I put the spoon back in the bowl and picked up the fork by the side of the plate. I scooped up a small section of it on the fork then brought it up to my mouth. I chewed then swallowed it. It tasted fishy.

The lunch passed quietly. Penelope ate two plates and Natalie grabbed the bowl after we were finished with it. I sat there with Penelope and Sekhmet staring at me. Natalie walked back in without the bowl then walked over to Sekhmet. "It's time for the meeting." Sekhmet stood up. "We will be in meetings all day, so why don't you show our quest around Leonis, Penny?" The girl smiled and nodded.

"It's going to be so much fun." I smiled at her even though I was worried about what I would find in Sekhmet's hall. She grabbed my hand and pulled me up. She continued to pull me until we were halfway down the hall. She was speaking excitedly, but I couldn't understand a word she was saying.

~Delta~

My head was pounding. Sera sat across from me looking just as miserable. "I am regretting the sixth quart of mead." I clicked my claws against the table. The sound was annoying, so I stopped doing it.

She nodded. "Yep. Though I could have gone a few more rounds. If they hadn't kicked us off." I snorted at her. "Sorry about not covering your back with the bouncer. I was-"

"Flirting with the barmaid to get free drinks?" I laughed again then I stared down at the terrible looking mix in the cup. Kieran was convinced that it was a great hangover cure. My ear started flicking as the green swirling liquid.

"Jokes on them, because they kicked us out before we paid." Sera laughed. I looked up at her. She had a nice laugh. I hadn't noticed before. "Though Mother was mad this morning, because she apparently got sent a bill for some of the stuff we destroyed. She was mad even when I apologized. Can you believe her?" I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. No matter what, you don't disrespect the Empress. Not only, because she was insanely scary and we were always told to respect and listen to the Empress. "Alright, alright." Sera sighed and leaned forward. Her head rested on her left hand as she stared at me with a secretive smile. "I forgot how much of a loyalist you are."

"I'm Volcanic." I shrugged. That was kind of our thing. Sera rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I know." She picked up her spoon and swirled it around inside her cup. "It's a bit annoying."

"You think I'm annoying?"

She shrugged. "Some things about you are annoying, but I can say that about most people."

I nodded. "So can I." My ear started to flick and I stared as she picked up the spoon. She placed the spoon in her mouth. Her eyes sparked for a second and a mirror appeared in front of her face. The spoon was pulled out of her muzzle then she turned to me.

"I didn't do my grooming routine this morning." She opened the mirror and looked around at her face quizzically. A bag appeared on the table and she unzipped it. She rustled through the bag while she muttered.

I blinked and thought over what I was supposed to say in situations like this. Since I had very little experience I chose the first polite thing to cross my mind. "You look good."

She smiled at me as several brushes came out of the bag. "Aw, you are sweet." The brushes went to work. Some went to her ears while the others went to work on the other exposed fur. Suddenly small pink things came out of the bag. They were lined up in rows before her. Another brush appeared and started working on her hair. 

I blinked at her dumbfounded. "This is something you do every day?" She nodded. "It seems really complicated." Her tail flicked and she nodded again. The brushes continued to work along her. The brushes on her ears went back in the bag and she pulled out a filling board. This I understood at least. Healthy nails were the basis of our whole defense system. "I'm going to say you look pretty more often now." I can appreciate hard work no matter the form it took and it always made me feel better when they were complimented. She gave me a radiant smile. Apparently that was the right thing to say. The board started working on her hand claws.

My ear twitched around as I heard a door slam. There was a pause before I heard pawsteps heading this way. Kalima walked in the room followed by Octavia. Kalima smiled at me and walked over the counter. She grabbed a cup then went over to the stove to grab the pot of tea Fay had made earlier. I turned back to Octavia. She was staring intently at Seraphine as she went about her grooming routine. "How are you doing this?"

"I don't think she can talk during this."

"It takes concentration, but I can talk just fine." The brushes returned to their work.

"I take it that the date went well?" I turned back to Kalima as she asked her question. I turned to Seraphine. I thought it had gone well, we defeated the boss then got snot-faced drunk, but I didn't know if she thought it had. The brushes stopped again.

"It went great." The brushes went back to work. A white bottle came out of the bag along with a thing. It seemed to be made of a silver metal. There was a handle that Sera was currently holding onto. There was a wide cylinder that came off of the hand. She pressed a button on the side and it hiss at us. I jolted, Octavia ended up a good three feet back, while Kalima just looked at us with tired eyes. "Sorry, it's a little loud."

"What is that?" Octavia slowly moved back into the room. She stopped in the opening to rub her face against the wall. Usually I would consider this an unforgivable act of disrespect, but I had seen Eon do this so many times it was no longer funny. She was sharpening her horns on the walls which didn't seem to be a threat to us. In fact, I think it was a friendly gesture.

"It's a hair dryer." She flipped it around and back again.

"What does it do?" I stared at her.

"It dries hair. You got to make sure it's dry before you curl it or you get a terrible smell. Then I can't leave my room, because I still haven't lived down the last time." Her nose wrinkled. "Ragnar is really obnoxious." I nodded. The brushes stopped and went in the bag. She moved the hair dry along her hair while it continued to hiss. Eventually, she stopped and spritzed her hair with the bottle. After a few, she set it down and picked up the pink things. She rolled her hair up in them and looked at me. When all of her hair was in them, a red and orange glow appeared around them.

"So when do you think we should go on our next date?" I looked at Sera. She seemed to think it over.

"Oh, it went that good?" I leaned around Seraphine to glare at Kalima sharply. She stuck out her tongue. I continued to glare at her.

"Yes, it did." I turned to look at Sera. "We had a lot of fun."

"I bet you did." I sighed then turned to look at Octavia. I tried to work up a decent amount of anger, but I let it go when I saw her face. She looked just like Jinx did when she made a joke. I turned back to Seraphine. My ears flick once more towards the table room as I heard the sound of a door opening. Four legs on stone, so it most likely Fin. Or two people, I guess. My tracking wasn't that good.

Kieran walked in holding a piece of paper followed closely by Fin. Which meant I was right on both accounts, so I was a better tracker than I had thought I was. Fin stopped by Octavia's side while Kieran walked over to stand by Kalima who smiled at him. He smiled briefly at her then looked down at the paper. "What you got there, little brother?" Sera smiled at me sneakily then turned to look at Kieran.

He glared at her. "Kali's mom sent over a list of social functions that we need to attend. Apparently, they have changed a bit since the last time we had to go to them." He lifted her head up and stared at the ceiling for a second. He looked down and smiled at his sister sharply. "Don't you remember Blue Scales's birthday gala?"

Sera's eyes widened then she narrowed them before she turned around her seat to glare at Kieran. "Broom closet, Second floor. On tape remember?"

"Huh," Kali said then she looked down into her cup? She walked over the pot on the stove then poured it into the cup.

"Okay, okay. I remember." He turned to Kali and looked down at the list.

"Why were you talking with Aunt Myra?" He turned to look at me then. I stared at him as I thought about it. It just seemed a bit creepy to me.

"She mirror-called me to yell about missing some functions, because no one was answering her." Kali raised the cup then took a sip of the tea as she looked away from both of us.

I pointed to Sera. "We had a date. It ended pretty late."

"I got caught up in the Queen Diana books." Kali was glancing around the room. She shifted her position slowly from side to side. Something told me she was exactly telling the truth, but this was the time or place to pry into it now. The time would come later when we were alone. "I wanted to finish the one I have with me again before the new one is released. I heard from Fay that they are going to be giving away copies during the Forest Clan Book Festival so we are going to be leaving early early."

"You are going to have to leave early. Several days early to beat the lines."

Kieran looked down at the list. "That's on the list."

"Yes, it is." Uncle Frey had gone every year to pick up new books for Kali and Rose Quartz. He would take Blue Diamond with him and make it into a boys trip. The guards would tell me all about it while I spent time with Kali, so I wouldn't actually get to take part in most of the festivities, but we made our own fun.

"What else is on the list?" Kali was leaning over to read over his shoulder. "Why is most of it in the Icy Mountains?"

"They don't say where they take place."

"Ice themed events take place in the icy mountains," She stressed the last two words with a health dose of sarcasm. Kieran opened his mouth, but closed it quickly and just nodded.

"Most of the events take place in the Icy Mountains." I breathed in. "The other clans just don't do parties and it's a prestige thing for them." At least that is what I heard. Can't say that it was completely true, but it did seem pretty accurate.

"So what do we have to do?" Sera suddenly started and the things in her hair unwinded. Her hair bounced around her as she did so. She gave a sigh of obvious release. "I stopped the heat spell before it did permanent damage. Can't party with bad hair."

"Can't you just change the style of it anyway?"

Sera grasped and grabbed her chest as she glared at Kieran. I almost got up to check on her, but she responded before I could. "Blasphemy." Then she laughed. "And you can just magic up food."

Kieran's eyes widen. "It tastes like dirt."

"Some people like dirt." Sera leaned forward. "I remember you eating plenty of it when we were younger."

"You would jump me. I had literally no choice."

Sera raised her hand and shook it from side to side. "Potato Potato." I don't know what saying the same word twice did, but it seemed to convince Kieran.

"Yeah, let's call it that." His tail started flicking. "You know, we are going to need clothes for all of these." He set the list behind him after he rolled it up.

"We got clothes." I had packed my dress uniforms, all three of them, because we were supposed to go to the season things. Though it would have been a lot nice if someone had given us a list before now. "Plenty of clothes."

"We need new clothes for them." Kieran rolled his eyes. "If we don't then it's an insult to the person hosting. It doesn't make much sense, but it is one of the rules."

I sighed. "Well, Ayala is getting some work out of this." Wintergreen was way too far away and she stabbed me with the needles. Always has. I think she has a vendetta against me, because I used to throw pastries at her at parties. Which was a nasty thing to do, but I was a young kit so it seemed fun.

Kali nodded then turned to look at Kieran. "A couple of those are on the same day." She glanced back at the list. "Why would Mom tell us to go to them when we logically couldn't. It's weird." Her ear started flicking.

"Maybe she means that a couple of us should go to the ones on the same day. Or maybe, she just wanted us to have a list of the important ones." Kieran shrugged. "Though it was strange that she wasn't more concerned about Caterina's and their situation." He breathed in then looked at the pot on the stove. "Maybe, she was busy with something. She did look busy." He pointed towards the stove. "What's that?"

"A teapot. A marvelous invention that allows you to transport tea into your cup," Seraphine coated her words with enough sarcasm to fill all of Zonya. If she continued she would have enough to fill the lupian's clans. They were only a bit bigger than Zonya though they were split into three packs.

"Thank you, Sister, for assuming I am an idiot." He glared at Sera then looked back to the pot. "I meant what was in it."

"Tea."

Kieran sighed and rolled his eyes. "What kind of tea?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Ask Kali? I think she made it." Kalima shook her head. "You didn't make it? Then who- Oh, right, it was Fay. I forgot." I glanced towards Fin then as I realized he hadn't spoken for a while. "Are you okay, Fin?"

He looked towards me. "I was just thinking about how to get Tia and all of the others back." He sighed. "But I can't figure out what it would need. The magic there was different than any I felt before. I can describe it, but it wasn't Tia's magic. I would know if it was."

Kieran looked towards Kalima. "So the magic there was different than Ti- Grandmother’s? What am I supposed to call her?"

"She seems to like Tiamat. I mean she heard your parents' names several times and she didn't tell you to call her anything different." Kalima had a point there.

"Set and Freya were popular names when they were born." Fin looked around. "It was why we chose them. Reyna had already started her rampage at that point, so we needed names that would allow them to be hidden easily."

"Ah, that is kind of depressing." I sighed.

"Yep, it was." Fin looked around. "It wasn't Reyna's magic. I remember what her's felt like. Vividly." He shuddered. "No, it felt different. Old." He glared at us. "Older than even I. Yes, there are actual things older than me. Shocking."

"Yeah. Most of the furniture in here," Seraphine said with a smile. I snorted briefly.

"Actually most of the furniture is from just before Set's banishment. Erika brought it. Thankfully, stone was in at the top, so it didn't degrade too badly. We might need to get new ones soon."

"Well, we can just loot the spider hideout that Caterina and them visited earlier." I tapped my fingers against the table. "It isn't like she can actually sell it from her deathbed."

Seraphine looked towards me. "It would be weird if she could. Zombie Saleswoman from beyond the grave." She paused for a second. "Sounds like a bad horror movies. Like one of those where they put the cartoon people next to real people. It almost never looks right."

"That would be disturbing." I looked towards Sera as I said it. Spiders were freaky enough without them becoming soul sucking monsters.

"There was one in Queen Diana and the Serpent's Curse, but they made it clear that it only happened because of the wild magic surges around the castle it took place in."

"That was the one with the group of Amish vampires in it?"

Kali looked at him then shook her head. "I don't think so, but I don't know what this is so I can't be completely sure."

"I can't really describe them. The magic fearing undead. I heard about them, but I never actually got around to reading that book."

Kali nodded. "Them? Yeah, they were in that one." Fin walked over the cold box then opened it. He grabbed something off of a shelf then walked back to where he was before. The square said Yahoo which seemed a bit excessive for a drink, but apparently Fin liked them. I glanced towards the clock and started. It said ten o'clock. This was way too late for me not to have started my work out. Especially since I had skipped it yesterday to go on my date.

I stood up then looked towards Sera. "I have to go do my workouts. Do you want to come?"

She stood up with a smile. "Of course." We walked out of the kitchen into the table room then into the room before the gym then finally into the gym itself.

~Tiamat~

The days had started to blend together. Mostly because my memories tended to switch while we slept, so we were occasionally woken up by a roaring manticore. Though that was my fault, since I had dreamed about that memory. Though the time between memories were getting shorter and they hadn't seen any of the worst ones. It was just a matter of time before I started thinking about- The world melted away and reformed into a starry night sky. Beneath it was three dark shapes. A griffiness nestled between a fledgling and a wolf. I could remember it perfectly. Mother's wing wrapped around my shoulders while her other wing was around Reyna. "One day, one of you will take over my stars."

Reyna had tilted her head up and stared at it. "And what will the other one do?"

"I don't know yet. I guess she will have to figure it out." Mother's wings tightened around us. "But I am sure it will be just as good as becoming Night Mother." Reyna nodded while I continued to think about it. It never made sense to me. Why did one of us have to be Night Mother? Why couldn't it be both of us? Little did I know until later that those same questions were plaguing Reyna too, but she went about it a different way. The world changed again. The trees took on a dark tint and seemed to reach up into the starless sky. This was the start of the end.

"Where are we?" I turned to look at the brunette girl behind me. Doe, I think her name was, but I couldn't honestly remember.

"Inside my memories. If I am correct then this was the start of the last battle." I sighed. That name was incorrect since there were technically many battles, but most people were into simplicity. If it could be shorter than let it be shorter and 'easier to understand'. It's turning everyone into mewling kits, it is.

"So this is the site of the last battle?" I turned to look at the girl who had just spoken. Felicity, I think Doe had called her. I had thought she was asleep, but apparently not.

"One of them." I glanced around. "The last of them." The scenery was looking more and more familiar as I focused on the memory. A rustle came from the trees in front of us. I walked out with Fin by my side. It was nice to see him again. He hadn't changed a bit- Because this was a memory. Why was I unable to remember that? Idiotic. There was another rustle and, without even looking, I knew it was Reyna who walked in. Her gait predatory and a satisfied gleam in her eye.

"Elder sister," Her voice moved through me with a sharp stab in my heart, "you decided to honor my invitation."

"To stop this." My voice was commanding and I had to congratulate myself on not letting any of the distress I was feeling into my voice. "Please, Reyna, I just want my sister back."

She leveled a cold glare at me. "I am your sister and you are the one to betray me. The mantle of Night Mother should have passed to me, not to some scrap of fur, my mother found dying on the savanna." I sighed. Reyna did have a point there, since she was pride borne she should have gotten it. I even expected her to receive it, but it passed to me. No one could tell me why or how to change it. I didn't even want it. I was happy just being Tiamat, leader of- I racked my mind for the name, but it wouldn't come. Reyna wanted to be Night Mother, but I couldn't let her. Not after everything she had done now. The destruction, the chaos, the death. How could I?

"And what is your plan?" My voice carried across the field. "Just destroy everything in your path until I give it to you?" I heard a gasp, but I didn't look to see who it was. "Is that any way to honor our mother?"

Reyna roared. "Don't speak of her. You don't have that right any more. I am her daughter. It is mine."

I leveled her with an icy glare. "Why?"

"I deserve it." She moved close to me. Her gaze was wild. "You stole what was my right. After all of your talk of sharing it. It was just talk to distract me as you drove the dagger into my back." She took a deep breath in. "You dishonor our mother's memory." I saw red and jumped at her. Fin was by my side. After that it was a jumble of teeth and claw tearing through whatever they could reach. I think I even attacked Fin that day, but I couldn't remember if I did.

Suddenly, the world split apart. Mother walked out of the between and looked at me. "Tia, my dearest daughter," I stared at her in shock. She was- I had held her body as it crumbled to dust. She couldn't have survived. If she had, I would have seen her much sooner. A shudder went through her and she seemed to flick. "Our time is short. I used up most of my magic to reach you now." She walked forward and nuzzled me. "I'm sorry for all of the trouble I caused you. You were right. You and Reyna were destined to split the mantle, but-"Mother gasped as she shuddered again-"She walked down the wrong path. I had to save her." Mother looked at me. Her brown eyes boring into mine. "I hope you understand. You have to understand. I tried, but she kept at it. Now, it is too late. The shades have consumed her, mind and soul. I hoped she could be saved, but I fear that is no longer the case. You renounced my mantle-"

"I did not." I had thought of it many times, but I had never gone through with it.

She shook her head. "It is no longer with you, but it hasn't passed to Reyna." She looked over my shoulder and I did so. "Them." I turned back to her to see her holding a talon up. I followed it to look over my shoulder again. She was pointing directly at Hex then she moved past me. "They have it." She shuttered again. "Not whole in them yet. Potential to wield it. Tia gave it up and it corrupted Reyna. Can you accept it?" She seemed to be fading slightly now. A subtle glow appeared around her.

She-No, they- looked at Mother with wide eyes before she nodded. "I accept Night Mother." Mother nodded and moved over to her.

"You know what this means? Reyna will hunt you and your siblings. You will have to seek refuge with the people you despise. The people you love will turn against you." She moved closer to them. "Destiny is harsh, but you will learn to wield the Night Mantle if you accept. You will have power to change your life. Keep your siblings safe."

A light dawned in their eyes then. "Yes." They looked at the boy bat-griff and the girl bat-griff then. "I accept. Whatever it takes."

Mother nodded. "Good." She walked forward. A black glow appeared around Hex then. It swirled and glowed around her before it settled around her throat. A necklace appeared where the glow had been with a pendant on it in the shape of a crescent moon. "There. This is a limited amount of the power. The necklace stores it now and will slowly increase the amount you are granted as your tolerance for this power grows." She turned to me. The glow had increased and I was able to see the things behind her. Her front talons wrapped around me as well as her wings. I nuzzled against her. I would miss her.

I closed my eyes. The feeling slowly changed from warmth to an actual cool breeze against my skin. I opened my eyes. We were back where we started. There were scorch marks on the walls and most of the furniture had been thrown against the wall though most also suffered minimum burns. I turned as I heard pawsteps behind me. Hex was on the ground, tears falling all around them, but they were completely silent as they sobbed. A part of me wanted to comfort her, but I knew anything I could offer her would be hollow. The boy-griff had wrapped his wings and arms around them. Sofia was on her phone with a slight smile.

A door appeared then. It slowly opened and Aleksandr walked out. He and Sofia looked at each other with relief filled expressions before he got down off of the step and walked over to her. She wrapped him up in a hug without saying anything. My heart started to ache for days gone by of the love I had found my family before it had broken apart. I knew it was impossible, but I still yearned for them. Before all of this.

I almost smiled when nothing happened. It felt so nice for my mind not to change the environment anymore. I noticed then that most of the young champions had left aside from Aleksandr and Sofia who were still locked together. The old siren and the girl bat-griff had joined the male in comforting Hex. I turned away and walked into Sanctuary for the first time.


End file.
